Sponsors and Friends of Inishowen Maritime Museum
Inishowen Maritime Museum, located at the Old Coastguard Station in Greencastle, has been at the heart of the community, preserving and showcasing Inishowen’s rich maritime heritage for the past 30 years. The museum has achieved great success over the years and has held many exhibitions and events to promote the importance of the Inishowen sea faring community. The museum is continuing its progress by being part of the Museums Standards Programme of Ireland with the Heritage Council and with its close partnership with Failte Ireland.
Since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic the museum has received no operational support from the council or from any other government body. The prolonged periods of closure forced upon us by the pandemic and the rising energy costs due to the war in Ukraine have meant that we have had to make serious cutbacks in order to keep our doors open. To this end, we are hoping to establish Sponsors and Friends of the museum to help ensure our future.
We are asking that you would consider being a sponsor or friend of the museum on an annual basis. Being a sponsor or friend will entitle you to free access to the museum, museum run events and additional benefits listed below.
| Sponsor – €500 Annual Fee | Friend – €100 Annual Fee |
| Free access to the museum and
museum run events all year |
Free access to the museum and
museum run events all year |
| Free entry for up to 10 guests per year | Free entry for up to 5 guests per year |
| Listing as sponsor on website and at museum | Listing as friend on website and at museum |
Your support is vital for the future of the museum. We are now a registered charity so tax benefits may accrue to donors.
If you are happy become a sponsor or friend, we would be grateful for your contribution. The easiest way to make the payment is by setting up a standing order to be paid recurring on the 1st of May via online banking direct to our account stating your name as the reference:
ACC – Inishowen Maritime Heritage CLG
IBAN – IE09BOFI 904771 89425514
BIC – BOFIIE2DXXX
The payment can also be made by calling to the museum and paying by card or cash.
We look forward to having you on board!
Regards,
The Board and Staff
Inishowen Maritime Museum is hosting a weekend event to celebrate the launch of an exhibition of a selection of artefacts from La Trinidad Valencera. The weekend will also celebrate the discovery of the wreck at Kinnagoe Bay just over 50 years ago. All are welcome to attend. Please note that booking is essential for fieldtrips.
L-R Charlie McConalogue Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine of Ireland, Rosemarie Moulden Manager, Seamus Carey Chairperson of Inishowen Maritime Museum, Seamus Bovaird committee member of Inishowen Maritime Museum, H.E. Mr. Ildefonso Castro Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Kate O’Callaghan Manager, Mrs. Esperanza Cancio de Castro
On Monday the 9th Inishowen Maritime Museum had the pleasure of hosting H.E. Mr. Ildefonso Castro, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain and his spouse, Mrs. Esperanza Cancio de Castro. They were given a tour of the museum with a special focus on the Spanish Armada exhibition la Trinidad Valencera which will have its official launch down here at the museum with the date to be announced soon. Before they departed, Mrs. Esperanza Cancio de Castro was gifted a Glendowen shawl created by Ann McGonigle of Glendowen Craft Studio as a reminder of her and H.E. Mr. Ildefonso Castro visit to the Inishowen Maritime Museum and Inishowen area.
May – August
Tuesday – Saturday
10.00am – 5pm
Sunday
12.00pm – 5pm
Last admission 4.00pm
Closed Mondays (except Bank Holidays)
Monday – Friday
10.30am – 4.00pm
Last admission 3.30pm
Other times by appointment
Andrew Ward Inishowen Development Partnership, Seamus Carey Museum committee member, Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland Mari Skåre, Seamus Bovaird Museum committee member, Ken Doherty Museum committee member, Karl Vekins Museum committee member
The Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland, Mari Skåre, visited the museum on 26 July 2021 to renew the connections made
by her predecessor, Else Berit Eikeland, with cultural interests in Inishowen and to formally launch a new Norwegian exhibition, “The Vikings “,
The previous ambassador had arranged the loan, from the Fram Museum, Oslo, of the exhibition, “Cold Recall – Roald Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole”.
This had been replaced by the new exhibition, but Covid precautions had prevented an official launch, earlier, so Ambassador Skåre did the honours on this visit.
The exhibition will be on display until Spring 2022, when it is hoped to replace it by an exhibition on the Spanish Armada.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of “La Trinidade Valencera” by Derry sub-Aqua Club, in Kinnago Bay but Covid has delayed this commemoration too.
Ambassador Skåre met with representatives of Inishowen’s four secondary schools, the Inishowen Traditional Music Project and with some traditional boatbuilders and sailors to re-start some of the Embassy projects.
She will be returning in the Autumn to progress the projects.
On Thursday last, the Norwegian ambassador, Else Berit Eikeland, visited McDonald Boats, in Greencastle, to officially launch a programme of exchange projects between 2 districts in Norway and several organisations in Inishowen.
The projects have been co-ordinated by the Inishowen Maritime Museum, in Greencastle.
The first project involves exchanges between Inishowen & Norwegian traditional boat building enthusiasts. The museum has been granted funding by the Fishing Local Areas Group (FLAG) to restore two traditional fishing boats, a drontheim and a half-decker, in McDonald Boats. During the restorations boatbuilders from Trondheim Maritime Museum & Boatbuilding Centre will visit Greencastle to take part in the restoration work. Next year, local boatbuilding enthusiasts will visit Trondheim to take part in a similar project there.
The other project involves educational programmes involving the 5 secondary schools in Inishowen and schools in the Bergen district of Norway. The projects will have maritime and environmental themes. Teachers from Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana, have been invited to Bergen, in March, to tease out the finer details with schools in the Bergen area.
It is also hoped to widen the programme to include a connection around traditional fiddling in the Norway, Western Isles of Scotland and Donegal. The Hardanger fiddle is both a musical instrument and a technique. Fiddling traditions and methods in Donegal are unique in Ireland and are closer to Islay than to Mayo. The methodology is thought to stem from Norwegian techniques that travelled to the Faroes and down the Scottish Islands to Donegal. A partner group in Inishowen has been identified and the Ambassador will be seeking a Norwegian counterpart to move forward with them.
In separate developments, the director of the “Coastal Heritage Week” programme in Norway has been liaising with Donegal Tourism and Inishowen maritime heritage groups to promote coastal tourism in Donegal, based on the successful Norwegian model.
The Norwegian district council is applying for EU trans-national funding for a project around the heritage & culture of the trade routes between Norway, the Faroes, the Western Isles and Donegal. This could link with a trans-Atlantic programme between Inishowen, Newfoundland and the Canadian maritime communities currently being developed.
This year’s Blessing of the Fleet at Greencastle will include a very special event which will commemorate those from Inishowen who lost their lives at sea. The Inishowen Maritime Museum has been working tirelessly over the last year to update the existing memorial and ensure that all those who tragically lost their lives in the waters around us will be remembered. The existing memorial was unveiled in 1997 by President Mary Robinson. As further research was carried out over the years it was realised that many more had lost their lives at sea that had not been previously recorded on the memorial. Realising how significant it was for the families who had lost loved ones it was decided that new panels would be installed to include anybody who had not been included before.
Keep up to date with the programme, book tickets for the events and keep up to date with the events and scheduling of the first ever ‘May the 4th by with you’ festival in Malin Head here….
Kjell Magnus Økland will be organising visits by Norwegian traditional boat builders and maritime heritage enthusiasts to Ireland over the coming season.
Kjell is a journalist, photographer, film maker & webmaster and has been an organizer and promoter of cultural and maritime events for more than 25 years. He sails both traditional and modern boats.
Kjell, and his family, will be visiting Inishowen on 25, 26 & 27th February for a preliminary tour of maritime culture and heritage promoters in Donegal and will be based at the Inishowen Maritime Museum, Greencastle.
Kjell is the managing director of the Coastal Heritage Weeks Foundation.
In November 1912, Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian polar explorer, delivered a lecture to the Royal Geographic Society, London, describing his expedition to the South Pole.
The lecture was accompanied by slide photographs taken on the expedition. The quality and clarity of the photography is amazing.
The Fram Museum, Bygdøy, Oslo, is dedicated to telling the story of Norwegian polar exploration.
In 2006, the negatives of Amundsen’s polar collections were donated to a public / private partnership in Norway and are archived in the Norwegian National Library.
The Fram Museum used this access to create exhibitions, and accompanying book, about Amundsen’s polar expeditions. Using the original photographs and notes and reports of the expeditions, the museum has created an entertaining and informative display.
The book by Guy Warner covers WW1 naval aviation in Inishowen. Its main emphasis is on the United States Naval Air Station “Lough Foyle” at Ture, with pictures and stories of seaplanes, base and personnel and descriptions of the interaction between base personnel and the local community.
It also covers the Royal Navy kite balloon service in Lough Swilly, the USNAS meteorological station at Malin Head and the testing out of Ballylifen as a mooring out station for Royal Naval Air Service dirigible balloons.
Cost- €12.00
P&P – Ireland €2.50 Europe- €3.70 Other- €4.80