Courtmacsherry RNLI: 200 years of saving lives at sea by Micheál Hurley, Jim Crowley and Diarmuid O Mahony (Courtmacsherry RNLI)
A brief history of the Irish Coast Guard – 1822-2024 by Niall Ferns (Irish Coast Guard)
Thursday Apr 25th at 8.30pm in Clonakilty GAA Complex
The RNLI was founded by Sir William Hillary in 1824. The Courtmacsherry RNLI Lifeboat Station along with the RNLI Lifeboat Station at Arklow were the first to be set up in Ireland in 1825. Since then the Lifeboat has been crewed by a multitude of voluntary local people and the interest and dedication of the volunteers has been handed down from generation to generation. All crew are on call 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. In the past 24 months to Feb 2024, Courtmacsherry Lifeboat launched on callout 37 times to a variety of incidents off our coastline. Over its long history it has been involved in countless numbers of rescue operations, including that of the Lusitania in 1915 and the Fastnet Race tragedy in 1979.
Micheál Hurley, a crew member for 44 years, will present the history of Courtmacsherry Lifeboat. He served in various roles over the years (Mechanic, Voluntary Coxswain, Crewperson and Community Safety Officer) and still continues his involvement in various voluntary roles. He recently wrote the book Home from the Sea: the Story of Courtmacsherry Lifeboat 1825-2023. He will be assisted by Diarmuid O Mahony, who has given 61 years of voluntary service to Courtmacsherry Lifeboat, including that of Voluntary Coxswain from 1982 to 2000 and Jim Crowley who served for decades as a Crewperson and Second Coxswain and is a noted historian on the RNLI and its involvement at Courtmacsherry.
The second talk, presented by Niall Ferns, will take us on a brief journey through the history of the Irish Coast Guard from the British Coastguard Act of 1822, to our independence and the establishment of our Coast Life Saving Service in 1924. This presentation reflects on progression of the service through to the renaming to Irish Coast Guard in 2000 and the modernisation of the service. The presentation looks at the people, assets, buildings and functions of the Irish Coast Guard – and in particular the service provided by the 44 volunteer Coast Guard units around the coast.
Niall Ferns has been a member of the Irish Coast Guard for 44 years having joined the Greystones Coast Guard unit in 1980 and served as a volunteer for 29 years, 19 of which was as Officer in Charge. In 2009 Niall took up a full-time position as Coastal Unit Sector Manager (CUSM) with responsibility for managing 20 Coast Guard units in a geographical area from Greenore, Co. Louth to Ballycotton, Co. Cork. In 2017 Niall took up the role as Manager of Coast Guard Units and Support with responsibility for the entire volunteer service of approximately 900 volunteers. Niall has recently switched roles to Manager of Preparedness, Response and Planning – with responsibility for the ship casualty and pollution response.
