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BILL QUINN, FORMER BOATBUILDER
IN KILKEEL, RECALLS HIS JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME
In one's lifetime at home, at work, or
at play, there are special memories that keep coming to mind.
One such memory for me was a trip from
Kilkeel to Carna, Co Galway, in July 1959. This all came about
when Gael Linn (a charitable organisation based in Dublin)
decided to offer the islanders off the west coast of Ireland
a better means of living by supplying them with lobster boats.
They commissioned Jimmy Rickard to visit
Kilkeel and buy five skiffs - as the skiff fishing then was
declining.
The five boats he purchased were "Eileen
Nora", "The Ella", "The Santa Maria",
"The Amina" and "The Stella Maris".
I was asked to install air-cooled Lister
engines in these boats. When the engines were installed and
tested, the crews from Galway arrived and provisioned them
for the long trip.
As this was holiday time I decided to
travel with them, along with Gilbert McBride and the late
Mervyn MacErlane.
There were two crewmen on each boat.
CONVOY
We left Kilkeel at 5 am on 8 July 1959
and sailed in convoy down the coast and into Ringsend in Dublin,
where we entered the Grand Canal.
Next morning we set sail down the canal
through Dublin (a trip one can't do now, as they have built
bridge over the canal).
I can remember it feeling strange sailing
through the city!
After sailing through various towns along
the canal for several days and meeting some wonderful people
at our campfire on the canal bank at night, we eventually
arrived at Banagher on the River Shannon.
I had brought a Vespa scooter with me
on the trip and Mervyn and I used to go ashore and take trips
round the country.
Eventually we left Banagher and sailed
down the Shannon to Portumna and entered Lough Derg, which
is 40 miles long - the scenery was magnificent.
REPAIRS
One of the boats hit a floating log and
damaged the rudder. We had to do an emergency repair job,
and ran into some trouble with a Canadian woman at Kilaloe
because we tried to ebb the boat on her territory!
Eventually we got underway again and
came to the power station at Ardmacruscha.
There we entered the lock. We were standing
holding on to the ladder in the lock, when they opened the
sluice; the boats went down so quickly it was like falling
down a well.
We then continued on to Limerick where
we had some gearbox trouble and had a row with the Lister
representative who did not succeed in his allegations regarding
damage to the gearbox.
After repairs were carried out we entered
the Shannon estuary and headed for Loop Head - a distance
of 150 miles.
We were now on the Atlantic sailing up
the west coast to Inishmaan - this was a distance of another
150 miles.
We were now 100 miles from our destination
Carna. We arrived there during the first week in August after
one of the most enjoyable experiences of my lifetime.
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(Click on a thumbnail for larger
image)
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The Stella
Maris approaching Dublin
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Navigating
the canal lock at Ringsend
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Making Progress
on the Grand Canal
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Stopover en
route on the Grand Canal
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Leaving the
canal to enter the River Shannon at Banagher
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Approaching
the power station at Ardmacruscha
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In the lock
at Ardmacruscha power station
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Making Progress
on the Shannon
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Arrival in
Limerick
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If you have an illustrated local story that you would like
to see included on our site, please contact mking@downdc.gov.uk
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