Tag Archives: Skerries harbour

Skerries Coast Guard featured on RTE’s Nationwide – 24th April 2013

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This evening, RTE’s popular Nationwide featured the recent Skerries Community fundraising “Walk to Shenick” which took place on the 7th April. This walk was organised by local volunteers to raise funds for a memorial at Skerries harbour to those lost at sea.

The Nationwide programme showed the many hundreds of local peolpe who turned out to support the walk, completing the round trip to the island. The programme also featured members of the Skerries Coast Guard team who were on duty at the walk, including a brief interview with the team’s Officer in Charge Vanessa Gaffney. The Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 116, also provided some aerial footage for the programme.

Skerries Coast Guard RTE nationwide April 2013

The episode of Nationwide can be viewed for a limited time on RTE’s Player.

Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary rescue team of the Irish Coast Guard.

Pollution report at Skerries harbour – 18th April 2013

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This morning, the Skerries Coast Guard team were tasked to investigate a report of a semi-submerged fishing vessel at Skerries harbour. Following the overnight NW gales and rough seas, the boat had become submerged under several metres of water.

The team checked the harbour area for any resulting pollution and thankfully none was found. The Dublin based Coast Guard helicopter made an aerial observation later that morning, again no pollution was reported.

Incident # 6 of 2013

Remember – if you spot someone in difficulty, even if you only think someone could be in diffuclty, dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.

Your call could save their life.

Community walk to Shenick Island, Skerries – Sunday 7th April 2013

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The Skerries Coast Guard team will be turning out with the local community at 15:00 this Sunday 7th April for a community fundraising walk to Shenick Island. The walk is being organised by a local group of volunteers to raise funds for a community memorial to remember those lost at sea. The memorial is being modelled on an old Coast Guard “Breeches Buoy” training pole; these were once a common feature of the local coastline.

Walk details

The walk will begin at Skerries rugby club, on the Rush Road, at 15:00, involving a 2km round trip to Shenick Island and back. Warm clothing and waterproof footwear is strongly advised. For further details on the walk, visit their dedicated facebook page “Bring back the pole”.

Artist's impression of proposed memorial

Artist’s impression of proposed memorial

EPIRB adrift – 5th October 2012

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Shortly after 18:00 this evening, the Coast Guard’s Maritime Operations Centre received a report of an Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon (EPIRB) adrift near Skerries. A member of the public had spotted and fortunately retrieved the EPIRB drifting at the water’s edge on the Skerries coast and immediately notified the Coast Guard.

These EPIRBS are carried on vessels as a means of alerting the Coast Guard should the vessel be in distress. For useful advice and information on EPIRBS, visit the Safety on the Water website by clicking here. The Department’s Marine Notice #8 of 2006 also has useful guidance on the correct operation of EPIRBS.

Thankfully, this was an old and correctly deactivated EPIRB and no false distress alert was transmitted. The Coast Guard did manage to identify and contact the EPIRB’s owner; a local fisherman who confirmed that the decommissioned EPIRB had been reported stolen some months previously. The Skerries Coast Guard team successfully repatriated the EPIRB with its owner.

Incident #13 of 2012

Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary rescue unit of the Irish Coast Guard.