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ON THE SMALLEST island off Ireland’s West Coast, an enormous wreck overlooks the Atlantic Ocean with a distant view of the Cliffs of Moher.
Resting on Finnis Rock, the rusted shipwreck of MV Plassy has been a distinctive feature of Inis Oirr for nearly sixty years.
Famously, the site is featured in the opening credits of the revered television series Father Ted.
But how did this steam trawler, measuring 53m in length and weighing close to 600 tons, find its way on to the land?
On the night of March 8 1960, whilst transporting various goods including whiskey and yarn, the MV Plassy was struck by gales on its voyage from Kerry to Galway. The crew of 11 men, led by captain Thomas Wilson, from Artane, Dublin, came to difficulty when the Plassy hit Finnis Rock in the early hours of the morning.
The crew notified Inis Oirr’s inhabitants by setting off a flare, which began a successful rescue mission that saved all members on board.
In a detailed account of the maritime disaster on Lugnad.ie, Michael Kirwan reported that ”warnings of 2182kHz gale force to 8 to 9 with occasional storm force 10″, were transmitted on Valentia Radio Station, that night.
On the fiftieth-anniversary of the wreckage, survivor Mike Tobin recounted the event to Doolin2AranFerries.com.
“We were too far to the north of our course, and closer to the island than we should have been, but we didn’t realise it in the bad night and the wind. We hit the Finnish Rock initially at 10 past 5 in the morning.”
Tobin described how a later storm caused the trawler to land up the beach on the site where it has rested ever since:
“At the tail end of some hurricane, the Plassy was lifted bodily from the position she was in, and shoved up there beyond the high tide in one fell swoop.”
The remarkable story and the size the shipwreck established the Plassy as the most popular tourist attraction on Inis Oirr, an island with a population of approximately 300.
While some would like to see the Plassy removed from Inis Oirr, many residents want it to remain as it commemorates the bravery of the islanders in rescuing the crew on that treacherous night.
The MV Plassy’s position today has been slightly altered on two occasions, in 1991 and 2014, since the incident in 1960.
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Even though he tried to chat up what he thought was a 16 year old girl, “Judge” Nolan still gives him a suspended sentence? Beggars belief
@COYBIG: see I agree with you and dont get me wrong these people are sick and should get longer sentences but you cant blame the Judge because he is just going by the law and the law should be changed !
@Jim Gold: Judge Nolan is known to give very lenient sentences to paedophiles … why is he allowed to continue to preside over these cases??
@COYBIG: Nolan again????????
Nobody allowed to critise a certain judge any more??
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Judge Nolan is half the problem with crime in this country.
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: I said he was a joke and my comment was deleted!
In 1994, the Sunday Sport newspaper published a series of pictures of then 15-year-old Linsey Dawn McKenzie as part of their day-by-day countdown to her 16th birthday, on which occasion they published her topless debut.
@Zozzy Zozimus: yes??
@Hans Vos: yes what?
I dont get it, were the sharing pictures of kids to each other or just sharing their own sik fantasies
If these gents were to be hung from a lamppost at high noon tomorrow the outcry from the liberal left and civil liberties groups would be vociferous
@Damien Mooney: yawn. Not only “liberals” and “lefties” oppose public lynchings.
@DJ François: yeah, I’m a positive rascal and I want no part of that. Unless they physically harm a child, then we can talk business
Wait, did the second guy know that the first was a man posing as a girl or did he actually think he was contacting an underage girl?? I don’t see the harm in a guy posing as a girl for some fantasy but a guy trying to chat up what he thought was a young girl is worrying
@Raymond Burke: they were both in on it from my reading. It’s effectively a thought crime.
Very hard to spot the crime here. No images of children and no actual children were involved. Having said that I wouldn’t be calling either of them up to babysit on Saturday evening.
@Anthony Horan: Crime-fiction writers would want to tread carefully around these parts….
Presumably by the same token, the author of the book Lolita would be getting a visit from the cops were he to publish it today….. Ireland1984?
Rough childhood,bullied,blah blah!
When is this going to stop?
Judges being lenient on sexual deviants because of their “remorse”.
https://tag.com/ heres tag.com I reckon this is all fake news.
@Kenneth Finnerty: I think they mean tagged, not tag
@J M Raw: no, that’s how the gardai found a conversation between the 2. Sounds like they were publishing it online (?) or on a forum at least.
They are psychologically sick individuals who should be sentenced to a year of therapy to cure their illness’s not suspend the problem for 12 months as Nolan’s has issued.
what a pile of shit
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