kinsale : Sea Sunday Celebrations.

[kgreenway]

Sea Sunday Celebrations

Kinsale. Co. Cork.

18th May 2008.

Sea Sunday : Mission to Seafarers.

Contact :

Canon David Williams on (0)21-477 2220 for further details.

The annual ecumenical Sea Sunday Service, will take place in Kinsale on May 18th 2008 this year, to commemorate all those lost at sea. Following a service in the medieval splendour of St. Multose’s parish church, prayers are generally read and a ceremony held at the Seaman's Memorial on Pier Road. Usually followed by the Blessing of the Boats at the pier head. The Irish Navy, Irish Army and Royal Navy, often including members of the 771 Squadron from Culdrose, Cornwall are normally in attendance.

The purpose of Sea Sunday is to commemorate those who have died at sea, to pray for the safety of those who work at sea, who use the sea for recreation and who respond to marine emergencies.

It is also hoped that a new memorial will be completed by then.

With Kinsale's long tradition with the Sea,this is always an important day for the town and it's inhabitants, past and present

[Administrator]

May 18th 2008

Sea Sunday Mission to Seafarers.

If by chance there is any change we will post details ASAP.

The current date is virtually confirmed, However we canot predict any alterations due to unforseen circumstances and suggest a regular check on the Kinsale Lifeboat site for further news.

For link to Kinsale Lifeboat go to our links section on homepage or simply search google etc for Kinsale Lifeboat.

[KEITH GREENWAY]

Sea Sunday in Kinsale was on 3rd June 2007 (LAST YEAR), it was supposed to have been on the 10th of June 2007, but it was found out that it would clash with "Corpus Christi".

This Year (2008) The Planned Celebration / Event, has been confirmed for Sunday 18th May.

[Administrator]

Sea Sunday, Kinsale on May 18

Celebrating its 17th year, the annual ecumenical Mission to Seafarers' Kinsale Sea Sunday service will take place on Sunday, May 18th in St. Multose Church, Kinsale, at 11am. The purpose of Sea Sunday, said Rector of Kinsale, Canon David Williams, is to commemorate those who have died at sea, to pray for the safety of those who work at sea, as well as for those who use the sea for recreation and to support in prayer all those who would respond to a marine emergency.

The Kinsale Sea Sunday service is observed as part of the International Missions to Seafarers Organisation which serves those who make their lving at sea, at over 280 ports around the world. It is the response of the Anglican Communion to seafarers and is known to many as 'The Flying Angel' on account of its logo.

The ecumenical service will be conducted by clergy from the churches in Kinsale and a collection will be made during the service for the RNLI and the Missions to Seafarers.

After the Service, a wreath will be laid at the Seamen's Memorial. This will be followed by the Blessing of the Boats at the Pierhead. This year will also mark the dedication of the refurbished Seafarer's Memorial.

A large model of a Kinsale Hooker, made by boatbuilder Ray O'Callaghan has been placed into the existing memorial area. On its deck it has inscribed a verse of 'The Boatman of Kinsale' by Thomas Davis

In addition, it is hoped that the new Harbour Master's Office will be complete. Capt. Phil Devitt, Kinsale Harbour Master has said that he hopes the newly re-furbished seafarers memorial will serve to remind all, of the dangers that face those who work at sea, as well as providing a focal point for those who have lost loved ones at sea. He went on to say that the new harbour master's office will contribute to the efficient and safe operation of the Port of Kinsale.

Attendance in the past has included representatives from: RNLI, Irish Coastguard, The Irish Navy, The Royal Navy Assoc. (Cork), The F.C.A, An Garda Siochana, The Irish Customs Service, The Apostleship of the Sea, Civil Defence, The Fisheries Board, Sea Scouts, Ambulance Services, Slua Muiri, Fire Services, Irish Fishermanâs Organisation, The Red Cross, Kinsale Harbour Board, Irish Lights, Kinsale Yacht Club, Kinsale Urban District Council, Kinsale Outdoor Education Centre, Valentia Radio, The South and Western Fishermans Organisation, The Merchant Navy Association (Barry Branch, Wales), The Irish Air Corp and The Royal Navy Air Sea Rescue from Cornwall.

For further information, contact: Canon D.H. Williams, on 021-4772220 or 086 8215502

* Kilkenny Youth Symphony Orchestra will be peforming in St. Multose's Church on Saturday, May 17 at 7.30pm and the retiring collection will go towards the new memorial.

[Administrator]

THE BOATMAN OF KINSALE

The wind that round the Fastnet sweeps
is not a whit more pure-

The goat that round Cnoc Sheehy leaps
Has not a feet more sure.

No firmer hand nor freer eye
E'er faced an autum gale-

De Courcy's heart is not so high-

The Boatman of Kinsale.

Thomas Davis.


Come in the evening,
come in the morning,
or come without warning,
Cead Mile Failte you'll find
here before you.

And the oftener you come
the more we'll adore you.

A warm Kinsale welcome is exteded to all Seafarers, relatives and every visitor. Hooked on Kinsale, you should be.

[Administrator]

Lost at Sea memorial for Kinsale

BY LEO McMAHON – SOUTHERN STAR

May 10, 2008

TRAGEDY at sea is something fresh in the memory of Kinsale people and with that in mind, a local committee is currently fund-raising to erect a Lost at Sea Memorial at Pier Road near the much admired 1601 Battle of Kinsale mast which is due to be unveiled on ‘Sea Sunday’, May 18.

The new memorial, designed by local architect Rob Jacob of JLS Design, will be a replica of the famed Kinsale Hooker from a drawing of one in a fisheries report for the House of Commons, London in 1849. It will feature a recessed granite stone deck on to which will be a miniature model of the vessel with the words ‘In memory of all lost seafarers from the Port of Kinsale’ and the following lines of a verse from the ballad ‘The Boatman of Kinsale’.:

His hooker’s in the Scilly van,
When seines are in the foam,
But money never made the man
Nor wealth a happy home.
So, blessed with love and liberty,
While he can trim a sail,
He’ll trust in God and cling to me
The Boatman of Kinsale.

The much admired existing anchor memorial, which we’re told, was the brainchild of the late Gerald Gimblett and donated by Jimmy Hurley, will be re-positioned and there will also be additional seating and cobblestone paving while access to the slipway will be maintained. Ray O’Callaghan is the boat builder and steel structural work is by Bart Desmond of BF Desmond Engineering, Kinsale. Rob and Ray have collaborated on the building of several racing boats for yawl rowing clubs in the south west and pointed out that the tilted hooker in cedar wood will be coated with copper and have a sculpted sail which will also represent the wings of sea birds and the fins of fish.

The estimated cost of the project, which is effectively an upgrading of the existing Seamen’s anchor memorial at Pier Road where the annual ‘Sea Sunday’ ceremony takes place, is ¤30,000 and to date there has been support from Kinsale Harbour Board, Kinsale Town and Cork County Council and others.

The Kinsale Lost at Sea Memorial Committee, which was formed following the tragic loss of two locally based fishermen the trawler ‘Honeydew II’ off the south east coast in January 2007, is headed by Eamonn O’Neill, a member of Kinsale Harbour Board and also comprises John O’Mahony, secretary; Albert O’Neill, David Hurley, harbour master Capt. Phil Devitt; Billy Lynch of Kinsale Council and Harbour Board, Johnny Walsh, Canon David Williams and John Thuillier.

It is intended that the memorial will be a fitting place at the waterfront in Kinsale for people to remember, reflect and pray for those lost at sea.

[Administrator]

Fishing under threat - Kinsale skipper

BY LEO McMAHON – SOUTHERN STAR May 10. 2008

Fishing communities are being terrorised by scare-mongering and over regulation of the industry by the Government and at the same time having to cope with spiralling fuel costs, according to Kinsale fisherman John O’Mahony.

“The Southern Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA), which recently opened its office in Clonakilty, can hire so many fishery officers and embark on an advertising campaign yet 16 beds have closed in the local hospital and an extension to the school is long awaited. We honestly believe the Government are on some kind of scare-mongering tactic by employing all these fishery officers to terrorise the fishing communities,” the skipper and owner of ‘Sean Mair II’ claimed.

“It’s bad enough to be worried at sea in bad weather without having your heart in your mouth when coming ashore, Even having adhered 100% to all regulations, there is still that fear factor” ‘What if they find something incorrect ? I can’t afford a huge fine. I will be a registered criminal’. These are the things bouncing around in all skipper and owners heads when coming to the pier and it’s ridiculous. It has shifted away the No. 1 priority at sea which is the health and safety of your crew and this has to change. With a lot of crews these days including foreigners, it’s almost impossible to get everything 100% correct, The people who impose these rules have no understanding of life at sea”.

Fishermen were not out to fool anyone, said John O’Mahony who pointed out that at present there was a very high level of policing of fishermen, especially on the south coast with boarding often once or twice a week. He argued that while foreign boats continued to fish illegally off the west coast, the Navy had no business being anchored Leeside of the Old Head of Kinsale.

“The dumping of quality fish continues to get worse as the year goes on and the quotas get smaller. This is like a farmer throwing young calves and lambs over the ditch because he is only allowed to breed so many. We all know stocks have to be controlled but this is not the answer. If a boat is engaged in a particular type of fishing, there should be a by-catch of all other species for the whole year.”.

The Kinsale skipper said rising fuel costs was a major cause of concern and eating up to 60% of gross income. Fishermen were not able to pass on the price because they didn’t dictate prices at auctions. In making the case for shifting some of this expense on to fish buyers, he accepted this could not be done unless there was a tariff put on imported fish, some of which are from non EU states with much bigger quotas than Ireland. ‘The problem then is that this would only sort our domestic market and since most of our catch is exported we need the Government to intervene with some course of action and ease the burden of fishermen on this”.

There was a need for all parties to sit around the table and make immediate changes for the good of all in the Irish fishing industry, adding that he and many of his colleagues hoped that in the Cabinet reshuffle, Mary Coughlan would continue on as Minister for Fisheries because she was the best person for the job. Many of the issues referred to, he said, were due to be raised at an extraordinary general meeting of the Irish South and West Fish Producers’ Organisation in Dunmanway last weekend.

[Kinsale Remembers]

BY LEO McMAHON – SOUTHERN STAR May 10, 2008

TRAGEDY at sea is something fresh in the memory of Kinsale people and with that in mind, a local committee is currently fund-raising to erect a Lost at Sea Memorial at Pier Road near the much admired 1601 Battle of Kinsale mast which is due to be unveiled on ‘Sea Sunday’, May 18.

The new memorial, designed by local architect Rob Jacob of JLS Design, will be a replica of the famed Kinsale Hooker from a drawing of one in a fisheries report for the House of Commons, London in 1849. It will feature a recessed granite stone deck on to which will be a miniature model of the vessel with the words ‘In memory of all lost seafarers from the Port of Kinsale’ and the following lines of a verse from the ballad ‘The Boatman of Kinsale’.:

His hooker’s in the Scilly van,

When seines are in the foam,

But money never made the man

Nor wealth a happy home.

So, blessed with love and liberty,

While he can trim a sail,

He’ll trust in God and cling to me

The Boatman of Kinsale.

The much admired existing anchor memorial, which we’re told, was the brainchild of the late Gerald Gimblett and donated by Jimmy Hurley, will be re-positioned and there will also be additional seating and cobblestone paving while access to the slipway will be maintained. Ray O’Callaghan is the boat builder and steel structural work is by Bart Desmond of BF Desmond Engineering, Kinsale. Rob and Ray have collaborated on the building of several racing boats for yawl rowing clubs in the south west and pointed out that the tilted hooker in cedar wood will be coated with copper and have a sculpted sail which will also represent the wings of sea birds and the fins of fish.

The estimated cost of the project, which is effectively an upgrading of the existing Seamen’s anchor memorial at Pier Road where the annual ‘Sea Sunday’ ceremony takes place, is ¤30,000 and to date there has been support from Kinsale Harbour Board, Kinsale Town and Cork County Council and others.


The Kinsale Lost at Sea Memorial Committee, which was formed following the tragic loss of two locally based fishermen the trawler ‘Honeydew II’ off the south east coast in January 2007, is headed by Eamonn O’Neill, a member of Kinsale Harbour Board and also comprises John O’Mahony, secretary; Albert O’Neill, David Hurley, harbour master Capt. Phil Devitt; Billy Lynch of Kinsale Council and Harbour Board, Johnny Walsh, Canon David Williams and John Thuillier.

It is intended that the memorial will be a fitting place at the waterfront in Kinsale for people to remember, reflect and pray for those lost at sea.

The theme of a Kinsale Hooker was deemed most appropriate by the committee following the advice of Rob Jacob. Local historian, seafarer and former harbour board member John Thuillier said that back in 1808 there were around 50 such vessels fishing up to 35 miles off Kinsale and these were the backbone of a then flourishing fishing industry which in 1829 employed 4,500 people on land and sea.

The term hooker refers to the hooking of fish but in later years such vessels engaged in drift and seine fishing for which a small steam winch was fitted for hauling. The boats were usually 15 to 20 tons and 30 to 40 feet in length and noted for their speed. There is reference to “the hooker in Scilly van” in the famous poem and ballad ‘The Boatman of Kinsale’ written by Thomas Davis (1814-45).

“It is entirely appropriate that lost Kinsale seafarers would be commemorated in a monument based on the Hooker which is an integral element of Kisnale’s maritime tradition” said John Thuillier.

[Keith at Tregenna]

The Boatman of Kinsale.

Thomas Osborne Davis (1814–45)

HIS kiss is sweet, his word is kind,
His love is rich to me;
I could not in a palace find
A truer heart than he.
The eagle shelters not his nest
From hurricane and hail
More bravely than he guards my breast—
The Boatman of Kinsale.

The wind that round the Fastnet sweeps
Is not a whit more pure,
The goat that down Cnoc Sheehy leaps
Has not a foot more sure.
No firmer hand nor freer eye
E’er faced an autumn gale,
De Courcy’s heart is not so high—
The Boatman of Kinsale.

The brawling squires may heed him not,
The dainty stranger sneer,
But who will dare to hurt our cot
When Myles O’Hea is here?
The scarlet soldiers pass along:
They’d like, but fear to rail:
His blood is hot, his blow is strong—
The Boatman of Kinsale.

His hooker’s in the Scilly van,
When seines are in the foam,
But money never made the man,
Nor wealth a happy home,
So, bless’d with love and liberty,
While he can trim a sail,
He ’ll trust in God, and cling to me—
The Boatman of Kinsale.

[A READER]

Kinsale

THIS year’s Sea Sunday service was unique on two fronts, the occasion of the laying of the wreath on the new memorial on the pier road and the preaching of the sermon by the only full-time chaplain to the Mission to Seamen. Canon Douglas Goddard gave an inspiring address to a packed Saint Multose Church where all the services were represented along with members of many local fishing families.

The rain fell as the wreath-laying ceremony took place, a fitting reminder of the hardships and misery faced by those who work at sea and then the procession moved to the pier head for the blessing of the boats. Kinsale skipper, John O’Mahony, laid the wreath in memory of last year’s tragedy as children of the fishermen released balloons down the harbour, in a ceremony relayed by radio to other boats, as the lament was by a piper.

It is hoped that the work on the much-admired new memorial will be completed this week, with the replacing of the anchor and the original plaque. For those unfamiliar with the wording of the Boatman of Kinsale, by Thomas Davis, the ‘Scilly van’ refers to the front of the fleet as in the vanguard of an army, while the O in Thomas O. Davis refers to Osborne, the middle name of the poet from Mallow whose writings in the Nation inspired. The creation of the new memorial also inspired the designer Rob Jacob to pen some words to express his feelings behind the design:

“The seafarers hull, his ocean home,
The setting sail, the seabirds wing, the fishes, finn,
All friends, all together, all at sea.”

SOULS OF THE SEA

THE TRAGEDY OF THE PERE CHARLES AND HONEY DEW II

In January 2007, within the space of only six days, three fishing boats - the Pere Charles, Honey Dew II and the Renegade - capsized and sank off Ireland's southern coast. Of the eleven crewmen on board the three vessels, seven lost their lives in storm-force winds and waves.

In Souls of the sea, Damien Tiernan gets to the heart of the tragedy that stunned Ireland and made headlines around the world. He talks the families of those who drowned, to survivors from the sunken boats, to the rescue crews and weather forecasts, and to the ordinary people who turned out in their hundreds to search the shoreline for clues as to what happened.

He also recounts the dramatic raising of the two boats, including the Pere Charles, in November 2007- sadly for the relatives, though perhaps not unexpectedly, no bodies were recovered.

A vivid picture emerges of brave and resourceful men and women who continueto forge unique communities in the face of adversity.

SOULS OF THE SEA: is also a memorial to the seven men who were lost:

GER BOHAN
PAT COADY
ANDREY DYRIN
PAT HENNESSY
TOM HENNESSY
TOMASZ JAGHY
BILLY O'CONNOR

( Damien Tierney is RTE's Southern Correspondent )

A percentage of the royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

'Thomas Tierneys book is a heart-rending account of tragedy and loss'

We reproduce the information above as the book intends: Dedicated to the fishermen and women and their families.

WE RECALL THE WORDS OF John Mc Dermott, BOTH USED AND FORWARDED TO KINSALE, Co. CORK AT THE TIME.

The British Merchant Navy
Looking for old friends
merchant-navy.net

Hi Keith, We pray and hope for the return of our fishermen to their families, as I was born into a fishing community I know how much this means to them. Just short of fifty years ago one of our trawlers was lost just outside Dunmore East. As a boy I remember standing in main street in Killybegs, Co. Donegal in the rain as our men returned in three light coloured pine coffins. The trawler was named the Jack Buchan. The Killybegs community offer their prayers today for the men and their families. We as Merchant Seamen are aware of the close link with fishermen and, the Lifeboats stationed around our coast. Many of us have been offered the life saving hand of a fisherman in foul weather from that Lifeboat.

Kind Regards John Mc Dermott

RE : John Mc Dermott - Message, John I hope at a suitable time to make the families and relatives aware of this and the merchant-navy.net site and all the kind words, may I pass yours on to the Mayor of Kinsale, Cannon Williams, The Harbour Board Authorities and Lifeboats at Courtmacsherry and Kinsale, Eire and also Barry, South Wales. I cannot send them all so no offence to anyone else, but maybe as part of a tribute John on this occasion could represent you all. I do hope that the authorities and communities of all home ports / towns of those lost, hoped to be found, more than likely departed. RIP. will look in and thank you themselves.

Thank you again. Keith and all at Her Name Was SS.

[KG]

16-May-2010

Sea Sunday:-
Kinsale.