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THE COMMUNITY OF Clogherhead in Co Louth is set to welcome the latest RNLI lifeboat to be based in Ireland to their town this Sunday.
The Michael O’Brien Shannon class lifeboat, which has been named after an Irish lifeboat volunteer, is due to arrive at Clogherhead at 1.31pm.
The lifeboat is the latest in a long line of search and rescue boats provided by the RNLI to Clogherhead over the past 120 years.
The boat and its launching equipment represents a multi-million euro investment at the station. It also sees the station move from a 15-knot lifeboat to a 25-knot one, cutting vital minutes off the time it takes for the lifeboat to reach a casualty.
A significant proportion of the funding for the lifeboat has been provided through a legacy by a Wexford farmer Henry Tomkins, who was a lifelong supporter of the RNLI.
Tomkins stipulated that a lifeboat be named for his friend, the former Arklow RNLI Coxswain, Michael O’Brien.
The Shannon was designed by Derry man Peter Eyre who as child was rescued by Lough Swilly RNLI in Donegal.
The arrival of the station’s new Shannon lifeboat on Sunday will take place in front of the beach beside the lifeboat station.
It will be the first time in Ireland that the RNLI will use a SLARS (Shannon Launch and Recovery System) to launch and recover a lifeboat in Ireland. The SLARS acts as a mobile slipway for the lifeboat, which can be driven directly onto the beach for recovery.
“We want the people of Clogherhead and the surrounding areas to come to welcome the new lifeboat home. The station has been preparing for this day for a long time and there is huge excitement for it,” Clogherhead RNLI Coxswain Tomás Whelahan said.
“The past few weeks and months have been spent in preparation and training by all the crew and shore crew, to receive this incredible piece of kit from the RNLI. It is the most technologically advanced lifeboat in the fleet, and it will proudly serve the east coast for many years to come,” he said.
We are incredibly honoured to receive it and we are grateful to our donor Henry Tomkins and to the local communities, who by their generosity, have made this day possible. We hope to bring many loved ones safely home in this new lifeboat.
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The fact something like the RNLI had to be funded by a farmer shows that we need more socialist systems in place for public entities. Scandinavian model would work well here but people too afraid to vote outside the parish pump
@Sean Murphy: It would be great in theory but publicly funding entities like that would inevitably result in an increase in taxes.
@Tweety McTweeter: slap on 50 cent extra charges to parking at all beaches and ring fence for that group
Few would moan
@Means of escape: per hour
@Means of escape:
Just be glad it’s not run by the state, your 50c per hour wouldn’t cover the admin
@Sean Murphy: The RNLI is mostly funded by both British and Irish charitable collections. It is a long standing and honorable tradition for wealthy people to sponsor a lifeboat in their will. The retiring Clougherhead lifeboat, Doris Bleasedale is a perfect example. With due respect Sean Murphy, look at the history of possibly the only British/Irish institution that survived our War of Independence intact. Long live the great RNLI and the work that they do, mostly thanklessly.
@Patrick Nolan: Leave as is. But certainly don’t hand it over to the private sector. They wouldn’t come out to rescue you unless they could make a profit out of it…..
Wonderful service, and one we should be eternally grateful for.
Fair play to the farmer. Giving something back to your country is really good.
Why 1.31? A strangely precise time
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Have a look at the picture again…. it’s the number of the boat :-)
@sean o’dhubhghaill: the number of the Michael O’Brien is 13-31
@Ian Shanahan: Ah! Thanks! :-)
As far as I know, the Government would give funding to the RNLI but the RNLI don’t want to take it because of the fear that they might be dictated to as regards where the funding should be spent.
Come along to Clogherhead on Sunday and see it in action. Then visit the harbor for kirwans fresh fish and chips, followed by recently opened porthole ice cream and coffee on the pier. Take a walk around the head and see the geographical rocks of the head which where used to build newgrange monument. Such a picturesque little village we have .
I remember my grandfather who was awarded a medal for raising funds for the RNLI used to have loads of these collection boxes that he used to deliver to shops all over that had a rnli boat on top with the sea in the background and when you put your coin donation in it used to bob up and down in a cartoon like fashion, used to enjoy putting money in as a child.. why are there no collection boxes in shops anymore for the rnli yet plenty for foreign charities.. not saying there shouldn’t be any for foreign charities but more collections for life saving organizations that benefit our own country should be out there
@Rob SharpeDj: they still do have collection boxes, my father is one of the collectors and has a circuit h completed to collect from. It’s up to the owner of the premises to decide which charity to support
Great news.
Wicklow RNLI got the same class boat about two months ago, serious machine!
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