A new maritime heiritage trust in Galway aims to help preserve traditional Irish boats.
The cost of preserving old timber boats is expensive and many have disappeared. Dónal Mac Polin says that the Clarinbridge Flat, a flat bottomed boat used for dredging oysters in shallow waters has virtually gone.
Kinvara in County Galway has a long association with boats. A survey of all the traditional boats on the Galway coast has just been carried out. The preservation of the boats will require the retention of the skills required to maintain them.
The Gregory Trust, named after Lady Gregory, was formed by a group of boating enthusiasts in Kinvara. The trust has already acquired a collection of original paintings and sketches of traditional Irish boats. Liz Murphy of The Gregory Trust wanted to keep the collection together and plans to exhibit it around the country to raise interest in Irish maritime heritage.
Dónal Mac Polin says,
We have a huge reservoir, almost unique in western Europe, of traditional boats unique to all the little areas around the country and if these are let slide away, we'll let something that can never be replaced slide away.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 26 October 2009. The reporter is Tom MacSweeney.
