The Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, has been urged to abandon proposals to move the National Maritime Museum from Dun Laoghaire to Dublin's docklands.
Five prominent representatives in the borough are leading a campaign for the retention of the museum, which is run with no State funding by the Maritime Institute in the Mariners' Church.
Politicians have been invited to a public meeting which the group is holding tonight in the Royal Marine Hotel.
The group comprises Mr Breasal O Caollai of the Dun Laoghaire Business Association; Mr Norman Duffy, tourism officer with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Chamber of Commerce; Mr Michael Hanahoe, chief executive of Dun Laoghaire Harbour Authority; Mr Eamonn Hewitt, commercial manager with Stena Line, and Archdeacon Gordon Linney, rector of St Patrick's Church in Glenageary.
In a joint statement, they have emphasised the importance of the institution for the harbour, calling for government funding to develop the museum in its current location.
"Dun Laoghaire owes its very existence to the sea, and as a result can boast a proud maritime history and tradition going back over many centuries," the group states.
"The Maritime Museum provides a unique opportunity for both citizens of the town and its many visitors to experience this heritage. It is our firm belief that should the museum be lost to the town, it would represent a shameful failure to protect and develop our heritage, and would send all the wrong signals to many individuals and organisations who are attempting to encourage pride in the town and develop its tourism potential."
The museum attracts about 6,000 visitors a year. Ironically, it was a £20,000 donation from the former Irish Shipping Ltd which allowed the Maritime Institute to purchase the Mariners' Church on Haigh Terrace in Dun Laoghaire in the 1970s. A museum had already been established by the institute at St Michael's Wharf, under the inspiration of historian Dr John de Courcy Ireland.
The 19th-century church, which is a listed building, was restored under an AnCO (now FAS) project, and the institute's members put in many voluntary hours to make the collection available to the public.
Among the artefacts on display are a "yole" or Bantry longboat, the only surviving relic of Wolfe Tone's unsuccessful invasion; the Baily optic from the Baily lighthouse in Howth, now automated, and many builders' models of ships.
In September 1998, the institute voted in principle to accept a verbal offer from the Department of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands to move the collection to Dublin's docklands.
"No money was on offer then or now, and we have heard very little since," Mr Pat Sweeney, secretary of the institute told The Irish Times. "Our worry would be the safety of the collection, as we were informed by independent consultants brought in by the Heritage Council and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council that the building is no longer suitable."
The only State support to date was a £2,000 grant to the Maritime Institute from the Department of Marine and Natural Resources last December, Mr Sweeney said.
The meeting takes place in the Royal Marine Hotel, tonight at 7.15. The group's e-mail address is info@dlrtourism.com
