Ireland – A Milestone Reached

We started the morning with a relaxing visit to Blarney Castle and gardens. Here we climbed the narrow castle steps to the top of the tower to kiss the Blarney Stone. ‘There is a stone there, that whoever kisses, OH! He never misses, to grow eloquent’.

The term ‘blarney’, meaning beguiling but misleading talk, gained currency during the 16th century as the MacCarthy of the day attempted to fend off the demands of Queen Elizabeth I. We explored the stunning gardens for a couple of hours before setting off for our first of two visits.

Kinsale Lifeboat Station

Kinsale Lifeboat Station was our 200^th visit of the challenge and left us with just 38 remaining. We were greeted outside the station by Kevin and welcomed in the crew room by more crew and volunteers that had taken time out of their day to come and see us. We had a fabulous discussion over a cup of tea and learnt much about the young history of this station.

The station lies at the mouth of the river Bandon and was established in 2003 due to the increase of leisure boat activity. In 2009 a new boat house was built, providing permanent crew facilities and housing for their Atlantic 85 Inshore Lifeboat. The station has been served by two Atlantic class lifeboats both funded by the late Sally Anne Odell who supported the RNLI all her life. She also part funded the boathouse.

The current lifeboat is B-909 with arguably the longest name of any lifeboat, Miss Sally Anne (Baggy) II Never Fear Baggy’s Here.

We gathered in the boat house for some photographs and a lovely presentation of some gifts from the station.

Thank you so much to Kevin, Johnny, Darragh, Valerie, Jonathan, Marie, Pat and Susan for their kind hospitality and generosity. A truly memorable milestone visit.

---

Courtmacsherry Harbour Lifeboat Station

Our second and final visit of the day was to Courtmacsherry. We had arrived a little early so we took a stroll along the lovely beach to their original lifeboat “The Plenty” which sits proudly alongside the road just outside the village. Courtmacsherry has some significant history and much of this was on display next to the original lifeboat.

The station is one of the oldest in Ireland being established in 1825. The RNLI took over the station in 1867 when a new boathouse was built. This was used until 1901. From 1901 to 1928 the Lifeboat “Kezia Gwilt” served the station. This boat and its crew were launched in May 1915 to the RMS Lusitania after it was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. The lifeboat spent several hours on scene but the ship sank in under 20 minutes with the loss of  1197 lives.

In 1998 a new crew building was built  providing improved crew facilities. At the station we were met by the stations Lifeboat Press Officer, Vince before being introduced to Ian, Martin, Ken, Brian, Martha and Asumpta. We had a fantastic discussion, signed their visitor book and had some lovely photos taken with the crew.

We then headed a short walk up to the jetty where their 5 year old Shannon lifeboat was moored following some maintenance work. It is normally held on a mooring just in front of the lifeboat station and accessed by a boarding boat so we were fortunate to be able to go on board where we had a great discussion about the boat, the RNLI and the station activities over the years. The Shannon Class lifeboat is 13-45, Val Adnams and was on station in 2023.

After saying farewell to the amazing crew we headed on to our accommodation for the night.