Two of my favourite waterside places along the Liffey are in Dublin Port – Ringsend and Poolbeg.

The maritime history of Ringsend is part of the marine story of Ireland, an area resonant of seafaring history and Poolbeg Yacht and Boat Club is a place where, whenever I have been there, has always been welcoming, with a warm friendship of the sea.

They are both connected with a marine project which shows how the sea can influence lives in a very positive way, reaching out to those who may not have had any previous connection with it.

"The maritime history of Ringsend is part of the marine story of Ireland"

The 42 ft. ketch, the Rinn Voyager, is well known and has impressed me when I’ve seen her at Poolbeg. But she is much more than just a nice boat. She is the maritime face of a project which has helped to preserve marine skills and rehabilitated marginalised, disadvantaged people and recovering addicts. More than 7,000 users of the Drugs & Alcohol Task Force have benefited from the project. It is the embodiment of positive community and social activism. Dublin Port, with its programme of reaching out to the community, has been a strong supporter. FáS supported the project and so did many others and unemployed people, people with boat-building skills and school leavers built it. As a result, skills were maintained, passed on to younger people. Twenty-five years since it was launched, when the Rinn Voyager Sailing Project began, one of the hopes would be for a second vessel like the Rinn Voyager to increase the reach of the project.

Listen to the Podcast below as Denis Murphy describes what this special vessel, the Rinn Voyager, has achieved.