Thread by @craftynathan

A Sad Day for Irish Maritime history, the @MVNaomhEanna in Grand Canal Dock is slipping into its grave taking on a heavy list.

This is a poignant tale of a proud Irish made vessel, its life on the Aran Island, neglect, and the abandoning Irish Maritime legacy.

A 🧵 ...

The MV Naomh Eanna was built in the Liffey Dockyard, Dublin, from 1956 to 1958. Roughly 490 Gross tons. Built to replace the ageing Dun Aengus for the Aran Island Ferry service.

She was one of the last ships built in the Liffey Shipyards and really one of the last major ships built in the Republic of Ireland. See below her original blue prints provided to me by CIE.

She sailed the Aran Island Route between 1960 - 1986. Having become an icon and a tangible link between the island and the mainland. I have spoken to a number of islanders, and the ship was a critical part of their lives, allowing them to come and go from the islands.

In this extract narrator Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh says that on the ship you meet tourists, young people who are going to learn the Irish language, returning emigrants and the islanders themselves travelling back from “taoibh amuigh”, as they call the mainland
rte.ie/archives/2014/…

In 1989, she was acquired by the @IrishNautical and moved to the Grand Canal Dock, where it was considered what to do with her.

In 1996, she featured in the now famous Michael Collins movie with @Iam_liamneeson

Following this, she was used as a number of shops including a surf shop all the way up to 2014. Any and all repairs were sparse, and her Hull was degrading year in and out.

It was intended for the ship to be part of a maritime quarter, and she would be the jewel in the crown.

However, setbacks and planning issues plague the project, which at this stage has been essentially scrapped.

So this ship sits and awaits its fate. @waterwaysirelan now enters the picture in 2013, and after a Hull inspection, decided the ship is to be scrapped.

The Naomh Eanna Trust enters the picture lobbying for a 16-week postponement of that order, and protests begin against the scrapping of the great ship.

TDs get involved, and a stay is put to spare the ship, and it's moved to its current site, the NAMA graving Dock in Grand Canal. A meeting is held, which excluded the Naomh Eanna Trust and any parties other than government departments to decide its fate.

The ship did not fit in the NAMA owened graving dock in Grand canal. It became snagged when they tried to flout her in, and construction work had to take place to make room for it. Alterinh the entery passage.

The whole operation was done quite hastily.

At this point in arrives Sam Corbett and the Irish ship and Barge Fabrication Company who had restored the popular restaurant the Cill Airne on the quays. They purchased the ship in 2015 for 1 euro with the idea to turn it into a hotel.

Private funding of 6.6 million was secured to convert the ship into a hotel with a 5 star restaurant, glass decks, and a 1920s themed bar. All that was needed was permission from NAMA to get the ship out of the modified graving Dock and begin its restoration.

And it's about here that my research has gone cold. The Irish Ship and Barge Fabrication Company have no website, and their last reported offices are now for a different company. I can not find any information online. But their CRO does show they are filing accounts.

After discussing the issue with the Narional Maritime Museum and CIE, neither could tell me what was actually happening with the ship. No one knew what was to happen with the plans for the restoration, and after the ship was moved into the graving dock, out of sight out of mind.

This weekend the results of that attitude were amde manifest, the ship has listed and apparently capsized, putting an end to any plans to.

It shares a common thread with much of #derelictireland. There are always plans, but nothing much ever gets done.

The plans for the floating hotel have disappeared without much information available.

The idea of the maritime quarter has been a plan for decades with no movement.

And the idea of actually doing anything to save the ship has been largely ignored by politicians.

This abandonment is the face of dereliction in Ireland.

Let's use this as a wake-up call that we must take action to save our heritage.

We must not leave our history as abandoned rusting hulks because if we do, there won't be anything left.

This blew up. If you want to follow along and learn more about Derelict buildings and ships across Ireland, then follow me.

I also build art pieces of derelicts and little homes. You can find all the details on my website.

nathanwheelerdesign.ie