Sally O’Keeffe sets sail from Querrin

QUERRIN hosted its first regatta since 1907 last Saturday, to mark the launch of the Sally O’Keeffe, a wooden sailing boat built by Seol Sionna, the West Clare boat-building group. The boat evokes the small-to-medium class Shannon hooker that once sailed the estuary.

 

The launch attracted hundreds of visitors to Querrin on Saturday and to Carrigaholt on Sunday. A flotilla of boats, including the Sally O’Keeffe, sailed to Carrigaholt from Querrin on Saturday evening.

“West Clare Gaels ladies took care of the car park in Querrin and, at one stage, there was over 200 cars in the field. This was unheard of in Querrin. We reckon several hundred people attended,” Seol Sionna spokesperson Dixie Collins told The Clare Champion.

“It was a day in 100 years. There hasn’t been a crowd down there like that in over a century. There hasn’t been a regatta there in 105 years. This place, in its heyday, would have been one of the busiest hubs in the area. There would have been traffic coming and going all the time. Turf and all the goods went by river. The last turf boat was around the Second World War. Then the lorries came and that finished off all the turf being transported by boat,” Dixie added.

The Sally O’Keeffe was launched by a man who can remember turf boats on the estuary. “The man who launched the boat was Matthew Bermingham from Moyasta. He’s well up in his 90s and he told stories of going on turf boats. It really was quite an emotional day and the pageant brought an almost spiritual element. The mix of the arts, the boats, the curraghs and the regatta made it quite special,” Dixie reflected.

“It was very moving. All of the yachts came down from Kilrush. That in itself was never seen and then the dolphin watch boat came in. They took 30 or 40 people in the parade of boats to Carrigaholt,” he said.

The Sally O’Keeffe was designed from scratch was constructed under the supervision of boat builder Steve Morris, originally from New Zealand and who has been acquainted with Querrin since 1986.
Dixie Collins is hopeful similar boats now might be built.

“It sailed beautifully and our hope is if it catches people’s imagination, we might have five or six of them on the Shannon Estuary and we’d all meet up and sail together. It has already sailed around Scattery Island three times, which is part of the tradition of boat building in the area. You have to sail around Scattery Island and throw some pebbles on the shore. That’s part of the blessing of the boat from the island,” he explained, adding that the Sally O’Keeffe is a club boat and that plans are being made to train skippers and crew so that the new boat can be used regularly.

The boat was built in Ned Griffin’s shed in Querrin, which overlooks the Shannon. Seol Sionna members had the support of two of the country’s outstanding figures of the boating world in Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh and Steve Morris.

Críostóir is archivist-collector at the UCD Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore and Linguistics. He has spent time in that part of West Clare as his mother, nee O’Shea, hailed from Tullaher. He is editor of the distinguished boating book, Traditional Boats of Ireland.

West Clare Learning Network (WCLN) members collaborated with Seol Sionna in a move to establish recognition for a Level 3 or 4 certificate, awarded by the Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland for some participants. The training programme to aid those who assisted Steve Morris in building the boat was Leader-funded.