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“Mayday, Mayday” in Greencastle
04.05.11
MAY Day saw the first
of a programme of annual sea safety promotion days
by the Irish Coast Guard and the RNLI in Inishowen.
All the emergency services involved in local sea
safety were on hand at Greencastle Coast Guard Unit
on Sunday, May 1, to advise commercial and leisure
mariners on safety at sea and the services they
provide.
The Coast Guard also held an open house at their
Greencastle station to display their rescue
equipment. |
Greencastle Coast Guard
station officer, Charles Cavanagh, said the idea of
an annual event to promote safety at sea had been in
the planning for several years. "A crew member had
come up with the idea of the play on words between
the international distress call “Mayday, Mayday” and
the May Day bank holiday which tends to open the
boating season in Inishowen.
“Over the past winter a member of our crew had been
involved with |
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Charles Cavanagh. |
Transition Year
students in Moville Community College in developing
a car sticker project highlighting the use of
lifejackets so we decided that for our first event
we would continue the theme of the proper use of
lifejackets at sea.”
Malcolm Heuston, RNLI sea safety officer at the
Lough Swilly station, arranged for the RNLI roadshow
trailer to attend the event that took place around a
sun-drenched Greencastle harbour.
Sea safety check staff were on hand to check out
lifejackets and to arrange boat checks for any
leisure boat owners interested in the RNLI boat
check scheme. Sunday's event also included a rocket
launch by the Maritime Museum as well as a rescue
exercise by an RNLI lifeboat and the new Sikorsky
helicopter from Sligo. The event coincided with the
launch of a new exhibition in the Maritime Museum
covering the history of Inishowen seamen in World
War I. The exhibition contains photographs and
service records of over 170 Inishowen seamen who
served at sea in the 1914 to 1920’s period. |
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