Interview with Donál MacPolín
Simon McGeady
Inishowen Independent Tuesday 12th August 2008

Last Sunday several sailboats took to the water off Moville during the town's annual summer festival. It was a reminder of a simpler time when smaller vessels like these were used to fish, a time before multi-million euro trawlers and advanced electronic equipment became the norm in this part of the world.

One man who is passionate about the more traditional forms of seafaring is Donál MacPolín. The Dublin-based art teacher was back in his hometown of Moville last week and while there he gave a lecture on Ireland's traditional boats to a packed out ballroom at the Foyle Hotel.

The slide show-based talk focussed on material from a weighty new tome entitled, Traditional Boats of Ireland, which came out to critical acclaim in June.

Donál is the assistant editor of Traditional Boats of Ireland, and he also contributed heavily to the book, researching traditional boats used along the north coast of Ireland, such as the Drontheims of Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly's Currachs. It was a task Donál was well suited to having penned a history of the former entitled Drontheim: Forgotten Sailing Boats of the North Irish Coast in 1996.

His book was a link to the past. "Back in 1996 there were very few books published about Irish boats. Those that were, were quite cold and analytical, they focussed on the boats, but not the people who built or sailed in them. I was interested in the design of the boats, but also keen to hear the reflections of the people who built them".

Donál set about recording the experiences of dozens of traditional boat users. It was a race against time as almost all of them were in their twilight years. He is proud of the results. "There is nothing like this anywhere else in Ireland. It's a very important book for all of Ireland's boats, because there is a whole tradition of boat making that is passing away and is going to disappear. All the people I interview in 1996 for the Drontheim book are now dead, none of the old men who make these boats are alive to show the next generation how to make them, so it was vital to record the old stories and record them now."

The book has been a long time in the making. It was over fourteen years ago that he got on board with the project to gather information on old boats and their users. According to Donál, 37 people worked on the 650 page book, the definitive guide to over 50 of Ireland's man made boats from Curragh's to Yawls. "There are 60 distinctive boat types in Ireland, but we couldn't cover them all. There are a number of inlet boats that we had to leave out," he added.

The erudite Moville man, who teaches art at a college in Blanchard is also the author of Donegal Currachs. His interest in the drontheim came about after he attended the 1983 boat show in Dun Laoire. One boat in particular caught his eye and Donál enquired what it was to be told it was a Greencastle Yawl. The name rung a bell, it was the same boat he recognised as a Drontheim. "The Drontheim was a common fishing vessel not just in the Foyle, but also the whole of the North Irish Coast from Donegal Bay to Carlingford Lough. It was brought here in the 18th century as deck cargo on ships from Norway [the boat's English language name is a corruption of Trondheim the fishing port in central Norway] and sold to the local community," said the author.

The Drontheim's peak period of usage was between 1920 and 1950 after which modern designs made the clinker obsolete. "Once inboard engines became available the Drontheim began to disappear, first in Antrim and later in Donegal, which was poorer and thus held onto the boat for longer. The last one in usage in Inishowen was based at Port Ronan pier in Malin Head into the 1970s. The boat is now in the Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle. There is also a drontheim suspended from the roof of the Buncrana Library.

Along Lough Foyle for main manufacturers of this type of craft were Hopkins, Kelly and McCann in Portrush and McDonalds in Greencastle. The latter yard has played a part in the revival of traditional Foyle craft, building a pair of replica Drontheims in 1996. This year Whitecastle man Ken Doherty built a new Foyle punt.

Donál paid tribute to Moville's boat club for the revival of interest in the Foyle Punt. "The Foyle Punt is one of the best racing crafts. It's light, elegant and fast. Now that none of these boats are being used commercially, the traditional will live on through organisations like boat clubs."

"I was very surprised and pleased by the size of the crowd, there is obviously a strong sense of pride in Moville and Greencastle about their maritime tradition and a concern that a part of the heritage of the areas could disappear."

He doesn't blame the fishermen of Ireland for discarding older vessels, some of which were shown in his slide show. "Fisherman are not nostalgic about the past like the rest of us, if there is a more efficient way of fishing they will go for the better technology."

During the lecture at the Foyle Hotel, Donál imparted several interesting tidbits of information from the book, including the fact that Ireland was the last place in Europe to make skin boats and that the only other people in the world still to use them are Inuits and Eskimos. The traditional boats of Ireland are many and varied from the Galway Hooker, which has a popular Connacht ale named after it to the Iconic Kerry currach. Currachs were also common in the North West from Sligo Bay to the Swilly. The Galway Hooker is one of the biggest success stories of the recent boating revival. Only a few weeks ago Donál attended a 26 boat race in Connemara. Traditional Boats of Ireland looks beyond technical descriptions of boats to the background to their use.

Changing patterns of fishing and water transport are considered, and the wider role of boats in peoples lives, boat racing, dramas at sea, and other stories of human interest. This approach brings alive the array of craft once a feature of our coasts, lakes and rivers.

It is illustrated with evocative photographs, detailed boat plans and maps, and this wonderful work is the finest and most complete description of Ireland's traditional boats.

Traditional Boats of Ireland: History, Folklore and Construction, is available online and from all good bookstores. It costs €60, but this represents good value, according to Donál who insists, the book would have cost twice as much if the authors hadn't received sponsorship. Although whether they could have charged €100-plus, even for such an impressive work is a moot point.

"We contacted 15 councils around Ireland and asked them to help finance this book, only three did so, Meath, Mayo and, I'm glad to say Donegal."

A copy of the book is available at libraries in Buncrana and Moville.

Donál's work in this area is not finished just yet, there are still people out there with stories to be recorded for posterity and stored in the Folklore Commission in Dublin.

Back