April 2011

New Book Traces Experiences of Inishowen Seamen

A unique is book is being launched at the Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle which celebrates the lives of hundreds of seamen and their experiences during the Great War. The book titled 'Inishowen Mariners - Faces from the past' was designed and created by David Snook in conjunction with Gemma Havlin - manager of Inishowen Maritime Museum and Seamus Bovaird - chairman of Inishowen Maritime Museum and support from Inishowen Development Partnership.

To coincide with the book launch and exhibition is also being held at the museum. The exhibition contains around 30 Royal Naval Reserve records for 30 individuals which gives an insight into their working lives over a twenty year period.

The exhibition and book gives an overview of the Inishowen seamen's experiences in the Great War period. It examines the creation of the seamen's record systems and the role of local men in the defence of Antwerp in October 1914 by the Royal Naval Division and looks at the importance of Lough Swilly as a naval base. From February 1917 and the start of the unrestricted submarine warfare, the destroyers based there for escorting convoys into and out of Glasgow and Liverpool and were as numerous as those at the more famous Queenstown base.

The book also explores the seabourne trade which came into and out of Derry.

Seamus Bovaird of the Maritime Museum acknowledged the level of research which made the book possible, he said: "David Snook's research has uncovered a lot of information new to the museum but this book and the accompanying database must be considered 'a work in progress.' "We will never know the full story of those Inishowen men who went to sea and survived let alone those who never returned but we can increase our knowledge by continuous research and by the help of families and friends of past seafarers who bring information to the museum so that their stories may be preserved. We hope that this project will encourage people to remember past friends and relatives who served at sea and encourage them to perserve their history".

Gemma Havlin - Manager of the Museum said: "We are delighted with the results of this project and the hard work that David has put into its research and development. We would like to welcome everyone from around Inishowen to come to the launch of this exhibition as it includes information on mariners from all over the peninsula, we would especially appreciate any information or records that can be made available to us to help us in enhancing this important part of maritime history of Inishowen".

David Snook said that "many local historians dealing with this period have to concentrate on those who were killed because those records are easier to find". Although this project does that he said it also gives "glimpses of a far larger number of Inishowen seamen who survived, their working lives, the foundation of the Irish State and the difficulties of finding work during the 1920s and 1930s. Some 30 seamen's lives are looked at in more detail using the records available".

The project will be launched at the Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle on Friday 29th April at 7.30pm. It will be officially opened by John McCarter, Chairman if the IDP.

*Please note that this will be the start of the May Day Bank Holiday weekends so the museum will be open all weekend with Mr Snook in attendance to talk to relatives and friends of those features in the book and exhibition. The May Day weekend will also see the launch of a series of maritime safety workshops by local units of the Irish Coastguard and the RNLI. All these will be open to the public and there will be rocket launches by the museum and helicopter rescue exercises by Coastguard and RNLI.

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