Imagine spending your birthday travelling overland and sea to North Africa. No, imagine spending your ninetieth birthday travelling overland and by sea to North Africa. Or even better, imagine spending most of the time there reading dusty research archives.
That's Dr John de Courcy Ireland's idea of heaven - and it is exactly what he did just over a month ago, when he marked the start of his 91st year. Not a man who enjoys flying first class, he returned as he had departed, by rail and road and sea, bearing his latest findings on the Irish who had worked under foreign flags.
Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish ports which boast magnificently maintained naval archives, according to Dr Ireland. The El Viss del Marques records allowed him to trace the careers of Irishmen in the Spanish Naval Service. And there was a significant Irish presence, as he related in a lecture on Thursday night to the Maritime Institute at the Stella Maris Seafarers' Club in Dublin's Beresford Place. By a happy accident, he also discovered that Melilla had the first lifeboat on record - provided by thoughtful ship-owners in 1497.
Shortly after he returned from his voyage, Dr Ireland was caught by surprise. Almost. He was invited to a function in Dun Laoghaire, which was being held to mark the Maritime Institute's 60th anniversary. He has been a member of its council for 55 years, and served as its honorary secretary and honorary research officer - a position he still holds after 42 years.
Extraordinary contribution
However, the night was also organised in his honour to mark his nine decades, his nine lives, and his extraordinary contribution to both maritime research and the marine industry - for many who were taught by him or fell under his spell went on to pursue careers at sea. Ireland is not the only state to have benefited from his work, as Mr Des Branigan, the institute's president, noted. He has been awarded decorations by seven countries, and is regarded as an internationally distinguished historian and author in his field.
He has also had a very practical involvement, as honorary secretary of the Dun Laoghaire lifeboat for many years. For that voluntary work, and for his tireless efforts at raising funds and spreading awareness, he was made a life member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He is also a life member of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS). Had this Government ever had the wit, it would have given him a seat in the Seanad many moons ago.
There were messages of good will to both Dr Ireland and the institute from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, and a presentation of a Waterford crystal sailing ship by the Marine Institute. Mr Michael O CinnΘide of the institute said that the two birthdays represented several milestones in the Irish marine sector.
Other milestones
There were several other milestones, Mr O CinnΘide noted. Ireland had taken on Britain in Hamburg over Sellafield under the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention; the State's £21 million national seabed survey was continuing apace; a contract had been signed for a new deepwater research vessel, the Celtic Explorer; the Marine Institute was moving to custom-built facilities in Galway which would also act as a research fleet base; and the new maritime college was progressing at Ringaskiddy in Co Cork.
If Dr Ireland was touched by the gestures, the night's master of ceremonies, Mr Des Branigan, hadn't finished there. He quoted Robert Herrick: "The lives of great men oft remind us we could make our own sublime, And in passing leave behind us footprints in the sands of time." Mr Branigan has been making his own enormous contribution, as a former seaman and trade union leader - and as the diver who discovered some of the earliest Spanish Armada wrecks off this coastline. He has been lobbying on the institute's behalf in relation to the future of Dun Laoghaire's Carlisle pier.
Late last August, this newspaper reported on plans to transform the pier into an "icon for Ireland" - as in a complex involving a hotel, 250 apartments, restaurants and an Irish diaspora museum. The plan was drawn up by the international architect Daniel Liebskind, who is responsible for the Jewish museum in Berlin.
The Maritime Institute has other ideas. Firstly, as Mr Branigan has pointed out, the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company does not have the right to sell the pier without Departmental or Ministerial approval. Secondly, the institute believes there should be full consultation on the pier's future, and it is calling for the development of a memorial maritime museum which would acknowledge the sacrifice of Irish seamen during the second World War. Mr Branigan was a crew of the first ship run by Irish Shipping Ltd, and knew many who were to lose their lives.
The institute has written to the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, proposing that the pier be maintained as a maritime theme park. It has no objection to commercial development in time, provided there is consultation and that there is a maritime theme. "There should be at least one large exhibition room, "Mr Branigan says, "and there should be play space for children - something which we don't have too much of in this country."
Exhibition in Dun Laoghaire
Next month the institute is hosting an exhibition in Dun Laoghaire's Town Hall where it will publicise a brochure outlining the seamen's contribution. The exhibition will include oil paintings by the distinguished marine artist Kenneth King, model ships, flags and other memorabilia. Also next month, the exploits of contemporary Irish maritime explorers will be recounted further south, when Paddy Barry talks about the recent successful voyage through the North-West passage.
The talk is in aid of Meitheal Mara, the community-based currach organisation, and will take place at its gala dinner, celebrating its 10th anniversary, in the Carrigaline Court Hotel,Carrigaline, Co Cork on January 25th at 8.30 p m. Further details from Meitheal Mara at (021)4316813 or e-mail mmara@iol.ie