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The RNLI is getting a new lifeboat to serve the east coast of Ireland

The Michael O’Brien Shannon class lifeboat is due to arrive at Clogherhead at 1.31pm on Sunday.

Clogherhead Michael O Brien RS The RNLI's Michael O'Brien lifeboat RNLI RNLI

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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    Mute Nathan Wheeler
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    May 4th 2016, 10:52 AM

    Good guy China, mass murdering its own people for the glorious Communist future since 1949.

    Wally Mooney would love to spend time with his communist brethren.

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    Mute James O Conner
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    May 4th 2016, 10:53 AM

    I’d say your great craic in the pub Nathan

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    Mute Nathan Wheeler
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    May 4th 2016, 10:55 AM

    I will take that as a compliment !

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    Mute Ted Murray
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    May 4th 2016, 11:14 AM

    I think they’re more capitalunists these days.

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    Mute Sean Johnston
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    May 4th 2016, 11:17 AM

    You think they were bad Commies? Wait until this embracement of capitalism has run its course. We’ll be lucky if anyone is left alive to tell the tale.

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    Mute Barry Casey
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    May 4th 2016, 12:53 PM

    When do you think that will be Sean? I’ll put your Nostradamus type prediction down in my diary

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    Mute Patrick Hurley
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    May 4th 2016, 11:19 AM

    27 years for a political non-violent protest. And we think we have a corrupt system.

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    Mute Ó Connmhaigh
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    May 4th 2016, 1:22 PM

    Didn’t stop president Higgins and Irish politicians doing business with them.
    And then Higgins has the gall to tell the British that “a policy of amnesia won’t do” when it comes to facing up to injustices. Another cucumber sandwich, Dobby?

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    Mute Jeremiah A Craic
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    May 4th 2016, 10:45 AM

    A great bunch of lads

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    Mute Old Gordon
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    May 4th 2016, 12:55 PM

    Although they might be nominally communist, China does have some admirable traits. Without elections, they can plan long term without the issue of a new shower of moronic politicians ruining everything every five years.

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    Mute Leo Lowe
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    May 4th 2016, 1:06 PM

    And they would know how to deal effectively with water protestors.

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    Mute James Stratford
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    May 4th 2016, 5:17 PM

    Not everything is about water!

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    Mute John Reid
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    May 4th 2016, 3:02 PM

    The people who vote for the likes of the Marxist/socialist so-called People Before Profit, Anti-Austerity Alliance and Sinn Fein should read more articles like this, and about Venezuela and the rest of the countries which have adopted socialist/communist governments.

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    Mute David Clarke
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    May 4th 2016, 1:47 PM

    And your buddies Leo who have robbed this country blind and caused the deaths of hundreds who took their own life and sometimes took their kids as well you proud of that Leo the lion yea c.nt

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    Mute Pat Walsh
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    May 4th 2016, 1:36 PM

    Poor man, he may have been better off with the death sentence.

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    Mute paul kelly
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    May 4th 2016, 3:10 PM

    I love chicken curry

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