Ireland – Clogherhead and Skerries

Following a good nights sleep and a hearty Irish breakfast we headed to the fishing village of Clogherhead in County Louth.

Clogherhead Lifeboat Station

The lifeboat station lies at the north end of Clogher Bay Beach, a vast expanse of sand that seemed popular with swimmers when we arrived.

The station looked closed and so we took our evidence photos. However, just as we were considering whether to move on, Launch Authority Jim arrived. Although surprised to see us he welcomed us into the station and up to the crew room where Regional Senior Technician, Sean was waiting. He was actually waiting for a colleague as they were heading to the Regional Centre in Dublin for a meeting. As he had some time to kill, he very kindly offered to show us around the station and the boat.  

A lifeboat was first stationed in the village in 1899 by the RNLI, taking over operations from one of the two stations covering the River Boyne and Drogheda harbour. The current boathouse was constructed in 1992 to accommodate a Mersey Class lifeboat and featured main doors at either end of the boathouse. Only one set of doors in now used due to the space required to maneuver their Shannon Class.

Between 1988 and 1991 an Oakley Class lifeboat served the station. J.G. Graves of Sheffield (37-01) is now housed in the RNLI Heritage Collection at Chatham Historic Dockyard where it has been since 1996. We saw this lifeboat on our visit to the collection in 2024.

Clogherhead now have a Shannon Class lifeboat, Michael O’Brien (13-31) on station in 2019. It also has the only Shannon Launch and Recovery System (SLRS) in Ireland, making this a unique station in that respect. The station was also modified to accommodate the boat and the SLRS in 2019.

Sean showed us some posters depicting the full history of the station and the lifeboats that have served there, it was a fascinating history detailing the community and family ties to the station over the years.

After taking some photos we said our goodbyes and headed to our next stop about an hour south in the beautiful harbour village of Skerries.

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Skerries Lifeboat Station

Parking at the station we met Operations Manager, Pete who welcomed us. He gave us a tour of the station and their Atlantic 85 Lifeboat.

The station was established in 1833 but closed just 5 years later in 1838. In 1854 the RNLI reopened the station following one of Irelands largest maritime disasters of its time. The passenger ship, RMS Tayleur, lost in fog with a misreading compass, ran aground on Lambay Island on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne. After initially hitting the rocks, the vessel was washed back into deeper water, and sank, with the estimated loss of 362 lives.

A boathouse was constructed to house a new 29 foot lifeboat in 1855. This was demolished and replaced by a new boathouse on the seafront in 1903, now converted to a restaurant. Closing again in 1930, the RNLI reopened the current lifeboat station in 1981 housing an inshore lifeboat.

The current lifeboat is the B-class,  Louis Simson (B-866), which arrived on 28 February 2013, and was funded from the bequest of Mrs Charlotte Jordon Simson. It holds the un-confirmed record for a B-class for carrying the largest number of casualties at one time, 18 plus 4 crew.

We had a great chat with Pete about the history of the station and the crew before taking some photos and saying farewell. We headed across the road for some lunch before setting off for our accommodation in Howth, east of Dublin.

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Before arriving there, we stopped at the RNLI Ireland Regional Centre in Swords, near Dublin Airport. Hidden away in a busy industrial estate, the Regional Centre holds the offices and maintenance centre for the whole of Ireland. We only intended to take a photo but as we were doing so we were spotted and welcomed inside by Selina who is the Computing Services Manager for the Institution. She was visiting, as were many of the key staff from Irelands Lifeboat Station for a large meeting. We also met Susan who is the Operations Manager for the centre. We had a long chat about our challenge and an interesting discussion about our upcoming visit to Poole and the RNLI College.

As the coffee break was imminent for the crew at the meeting we said our goodbyes and thanks Susan and Selina for their time. An unexpected but very interesting quick visit.