An IRISH trait which has been called the desire
'' To penetrate the unknown and make the unseen world actual ''
is illustrated by the following pages showing how over the centuries the Irish people, from a small little island on the western seaboard of Europe left their native home to trade , to work , to live and make a new life in the hitherto unknown places of the lands to the west.
It is known that there was considerable 'immigration' by the Irish to work in the rich fishing grounds of Newfoundland from the early centuries.
Many holy men went west and founded monasteries on various lands like the Faroes and Greenland from the 5th century.
ST BRENDAN from Co. Kerry sailed west in 550ad and it can be said he was the first to discover America by landing in the 'Promised land'. He was followed almost 1500 years later by TIM SEVERIN in an exact replica canvas covered boat, arriving in Newfoundland 1976.
Many followed
Paddy Barry, an intrepid sailor from Connemara, whose travels included visits to New York, Boston, the Faroe islands, Spitzbergen, Murmansk and Greenland, Baffin bay in the Artic and all in his GALWAY HOOKER the ST PATRICK. 20,000 miles west over a period of 33 years.
THE DUNBRODY ship. A replica of the original 1845 famine ship was built in New Ross, County Wexford. The original ship was used mainly for the transportation of Irish immigrants from southern Ireland to the main ports of north America, particularly Canada's Ile de Grose. Although the replica is totally seaworthy and has participated in the 2005 tall ships festival she has not undertaken any long voyages. It is possible that the ancestors of John F. Kennedy may have immigrated from New Ross around 1845. The Kennedy ancestral homestead is only about 10 miles south of New Ross and is today a highlight of many US visitors to Ireland.
THE JEANIE JOHNSTON Another three-masted replica barque was built and launched in 2001 near Tralee in County Kerry. She has replicated her past by crossing the Atlantic a number of times in the past few years visiting the USA and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Newfoundland. She is now moored in Dublin City docks as a historic tourist attraction.
THE NORTHABOUT is a metal clad yacht specially built by local west of Ireland enthusiastic sailors in 2001 in Connemara. Their objective was the navigate the almost impenetrable Northwest Passage and reach the Alaska and the pacific Ocean on the other side of North America. They left Clifden for Greenland and continued on thru the Bering Straits, and on to Homer, Alaska where they berthed the boat for a year when they then sailed back to Ireland.
GALWAY being the major western Ireland port and closest to the Americas traded big time with the new World and even long before Christopher Columbus who visited Galway around 1477 to study the traffic between Ireland and the lands to the west.
'' To penetrate the unknown and make the unseen world actual ''
is illustrated by the following pages showing how over the centuries the Irish people, from a small little island on the western seaboard of Europe left their native home to trade , to work , to live and make a new life in the hitherto unknown places of the lands to the west.
It is known that there was considerable 'immigration' by the Irish to work in the rich fishing grounds of Newfoundland from the early centuries.
Many holy men went west and founded monasteries on various lands like the Faroes and Greenland from the 5th century.
ST BRENDAN from Co. Kerry sailed west in 550ad and it can be said he was the first to discover America by landing in the 'Promised land'. He was followed almost 1500 years later by TIM SEVERIN in an exact replica canvas covered boat, arriving in Newfoundland 1976.
Many followed
Paddy Barry, an intrepid sailor from Connemara, whose travels included visits to New York, Boston, the Faroe islands, Spitzbergen, Murmansk and Greenland, Baffin bay in the Artic and all in his GALWAY HOOKER the ST PATRICK. 20,000 miles west over a period of 33 years.
THE DUNBRODY ship. A replica of the original 1845 famine ship was built in New Ross, County Wexford. The original ship was used mainly for the transportation of Irish immigrants from southern Ireland to the main ports of north America, particularly Canada's Ile de Grose. Although the replica is totally seaworthy and has participated in the 2005 tall ships festival she has not undertaken any long voyages. It is possible that the ancestors of John F. Kennedy may have immigrated from New Ross around 1845. The Kennedy ancestral homestead is only about 10 miles south of New Ross and is today a highlight of many US visitors to Ireland.
THE JEANIE JOHNSTON Another three-masted replica barque was built and launched in 2001 near Tralee in County Kerry. She has replicated her past by crossing the Atlantic a number of times in the past few years visiting the USA and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Newfoundland. She is now moored in Dublin City docks as a historic tourist attraction.
THE NORTHABOUT is a metal clad yacht specially built by local west of Ireland enthusiastic sailors in 2001 in Connemara. Their objective was the navigate the almost impenetrable Northwest Passage and reach the Alaska and the pacific Ocean on the other side of North America. They left Clifden for Greenland and continued on thru the Bering Straits, and on to Homer, Alaska where they berthed the boat for a year when they then sailed back to Ireland.
GALWAY being the major western Ireland port and closest to the Americas traded big time with the new World and even long before Christopher Columbus who visited Galway around 1477 to study the traffic between Ireland and the lands to the west.
