IREI.ANDS LINKS with the RNLI are almost as old as the Institution itself and the tradition of lifesaving around its rugged coastline stretches back to the turn of the century.

Guarding the busy shipping lanes bringing transatlantic traffic into the Irish Sea. via St George's Channel, are nine of the country's 25 (soon to be 26) lifeboat stations, of which four are featured here.

Baltimore Furthest west of the four lies Baltimore, established by the Institution in 1919.

The first lifeboat to be stationed there—a 45ft Watson motor lifeboat— the Shamrock, was provided from the institution's funds and remained on station until 1950, launching 43 times and saving 34 lives.

Presiding at her naming ceremony on April 19. 1920 was the Venerable Archdeacon J H H Becher who, in 1916, was awarded the RNLI's silver medal for his part in the rescue of 23 men, by means of lines from the shore, of the ss Alondru of Liverpool, which ran ashore on the Kedge Rocks in dense tog and bad weather on December 29.

The Archdeacon also took part in the service on January 2, 1917 to the ss Nestorian after she ran ashore at Cape Clear Island, also in dense fog and in a very heavy westerly swell.

Archdeacon Becher was in charge of the lifesaving apparatus, which was carried two miles over a mountain to the wreck.

John Daly, Tim Daly, Michael Cadogan and Tim Cadogan, who put off in a small boat and at great risk to themselves to rescue two of the stranded crew of the ss Nestorian. were awarded silver medals.

The year before the Shamrock''-, arrival at Baltimore the silver medal was awarded to John Hart and the bronze medal to Timothy Murphy and Jeremiah McCarthy for their gallant conduct in saving five people from the fishing boat Thomas Joseph of Dublin, which was wrecked in a strong north westerly wind, with a very heavy sea, on Shirkin Island on the night of November 10/11, 1918.

The boat was on a trial trip with 11 people on board when she struck some rocks and six were drowned. The rescuers put off in a yawl and, at great personal risk, saved three men who were clinging to the mast and a man and a girl from the rocks.

The RNLI's district organising secretary for Ireland, Herbert G Solomon, speaking at the 1920 naming ceremony for the Shamrock, reminded those present that the original idea of placing alifeboat at Baltimore came from Mr H P F Donegan of Cork, who knew every creek on the coast, prepared charts and furnished valuable information, which was irresistible to the Committee of Management when they came to consider the claims of Baltimore to a lifeboat.

Sixty years after the establishment of the station many of the yachtsmen taking part in the ill-fated 1979 Fastnet Race had good cause to be grateful to Mr Donegan for his foresight, the Baltimore boat having joined with several other Irish lifeboats to assist numerous yachts in difficulties during the storms of August 13/14.

Today, Coxswain Christy Collins and his crew are the proud custodians of a new £560,000 47ft Tyne class lifeboat, the Hilda Jarrelt. which arrived on station in February this year.

But it was in the 48ft 6in Oakley class lifeboat Charles Henry that the Baltimore crew came to world attention when, in September 1985, they rescued Mr Charles Haughey, then leader of Eire's Fianna Fail opposition party and now the Republic's Prime Minister, after his 40ft yacht struck a rock and sank in thick fog near Mizzen Head.

Courtmacsherry Although a lifeboat had been sent to Courtmacsherry Harbour in 1825, it was never housed and ultimately fell into decay. The Institution sent another boat there in 1867, building a boathouse for it at a cost of £170. THE LIFEBOAT of July that year records: A life-boat establishment has been founded b the Institution at Courtmacsherrv. . The Coastguardsmen and boatmen here often run very great risk in rescuing by means of their own open boats the crews of wrecked vessels.

Indeed, in 1842 the Chief Officer of Coastguard, one B E Quadling, was awarded the Institution's gold medal for rescuing, with five of his colleagues the crew of 14 of the brig Latona.

Two years earlier the silver medal had gone to the same man for the rescue in an open boat of the crew of four of the sloop John and Ellen. Seven other men were given monetary rewards for their part in that rescue.

Since 1867 lifeboats at Courtmacsherry have launched on 212 occasions, saving 172 lives.

From 1969 until last year, the 47ft Watson lifeboat Helen Wvcherlev was stationed there, but has now joined the relief fleet and has been replaced by the 48ft Solent class R Hope Roberts.

Hopes are high among the crew of eventually being allocated one of the RNLI's new generation of fast modern lifeboats, with a Tyne class in the afloat mode the favoured class, because of the bad bar at the harbour's entrance.

Before any new boat can be allocated there, however, the harbour will need to be dredged, at an estimated cost of IR£5(),00().

Station honorary secretary, Mr Des Bateman, said support on the dredging issue was very strong locally. The couniv council is 100 per cent behind us, but the problem is just below high water, which makes it not their responsibility, he said. RTE (Eire's national television and radio network) and the Press have given us good coverage and the local TDs (Members of the Irish Parliamentor Dial) are pressing as hard us they can to get it done.

The main problem is a lack of cash, hut Mr Bateman is confident that, with support from the local community and businesses in the area, this problem can be overcome.

One of the main local industries is fishing and the Courtmacsherry lifeboat is often called out to assist trawlers in difficulties, as well as taking sick seamen off bigger ships passing by, helping yachts in trouble and answering a wide range of other calls.

Full time mechanic Jeremiah O'Mahony recalled one of their most unusual call-outs, which occurred one new year's eve. We were told that a car had driven over cliffs at Kinsale and that the cliff rescue ropes weren't long enough.

We got the lifeboat in as close as we could, but could not see the car because it was hidden by rocks. We tried veering down with the boarding boat but could not get in close enough with that.

Eventually we got the mountain rescue team from Killarnev, Co. Kerry and they went down. We stood by to illuminate the scene. Unfortunately, when they got down to the driver he wax already dead.

Courtmachsherry lifeboat has a young crew, all living within four miles of the village. Several of them work away from home, as employment is at a premium in the immediate locality.

Courtmacsherry is a popular holiday spot and boasts a number of holiday cottages and a good hotel.

Nearby Kinsale is a busy yachting harbour and Courtmacsherrv Harbour is the closest lifeboat station to it.

Living in the village, almost opposite the present lifeboathouse, is Mrs Kathleen Fitzgerald, whose grandfather Timothy Keohane was coxswain for more than 20 years of the former rowing lifeboat Kezia Gwilt, stationed at Courtmacsherry from 1901 to 1928.

'Lucitania' She has a photograph of the old boathouse at Barry Point where the Kezia Gwilt was kept and also has her grandfather's certificate of service, dated December 18, 1924. He used to get into trouble with the locals for not calling them out in a storm in the middle of the night, she said, recalling how, as a child with her brother, she would visit the boathouse and ask her grandfather for chocolate from the boat's stores. He always refused. He was very particular about the boathouse, she said.

Coxswain Keohane visited the boathouse daily (a mile's walk) and on moonlit nights could often be seen descending the 3()()ft cliffs looking for wrecks.

When the Lucitania was torpedoed in 1915 he had been working on the land, overlooking the sea. It was a beautiful, clear summer's day and, to his astonishment, he saw the giant vessel slowly sinking. He rushed back to Courtmacsherry Harbour to launch the lifeboat,said Mrs Fitzgerald. They found bodies all over the sea.

Two days earlier, Des Bateman's father had seen a submarine lurking in the bay. He was interviewed by the authorities who said it was not possible, there could not be one there, he said.

Also living in retirement at Courtmacsherry Harbour is the former District Engineer for the whole of Ireland (before the division was split into two).

Noble Ruddock took over as DE Ireland in 1963, having begun his career with the RNLI as assistant mechanic at Courtmacsherry Harbour in 1929, upon the arrival of the station's first motor lifeboat, Sarah Ward and William David Crosweller. I was on the R Hope Roberts' passage to Rossiare Harbour after she was built, he recalled.

He was awarded the thanks of the Institution on vellum in 1965, having taken part with the crew of Portrush lifeboat in the search for survivors of a Norwegian frigate in a north westerly storm force 10. / went out with the lifeboat and we got an awful pounding, recalled Mr Ruddock. hammered the bottom out of her. We didn't know she was full of water until we got her in the boathouse.

Ballycotton Ballycotton lifeboat station was established by the Institution in 1858 to give protection to the shipping plying in and out of the port of Cork.

The station's first lifeboat, crewed by eight men and pulling six oars, saved 11 lives on five launches—a modest start giving little hint of the heroics to follow in later years.

Last year was the station's busiest for a while with the current 52ft Arun class lifeboat Hyman Winstone launching on service 16 times, including a two-day search in November for Michael Mullin, the 20-year-old fisherman son of Galway Bay lifeboat mechanic Bartley Mullin, sadly to no avail.

Before the station was established the Institution had already recognised two acts of bravery by local people, awarding the silver medal to Dennis Cronen for rescuing the master of the ship Britannia in 1826, the gold medal to Coastguard Officer Lt Samuel Lloyd RN and the silver to John Hennessy for their part in rescuing 10 Spaniards from the brig Capricho. wrecked in a severegale on January 25, 1829.

The 37ft self righting lifeboat T P Hearne launched on November 15, 1911, in a strong south easterly gale, with a very heavy sea to rescue with great difficulty nine of the crew of the ss Tadorna, of Cork, in distress five miles from Ballycotton. The remaining 12 crew were rescued by rocket apparatus.

Coxswain Richard Harding was awarded the Institution's silver medal and other awards went to the station honorary secretary, the Rev E F Duncan and local committee member Mr P Driscoll (who went out with the lifeboat).

Ballycotton's most decorated lifeboatman, Patrick Sliney. retired in 1950 after 39 years' service, including 28 ascoxswain. He had taken part in the rescue of 114 lives and been awarded gold, silver and bronze medals for gallantry, as well as the thanks of the Institution on vellum.

His most famous exploit, for which he received the gold medal, occurred in February, 1936, when the eight man crew of the Daunt Rock Lightvessel were rescued.

The vessel had broken her moorings during a hurricane, with a very heavy sea, rain and snow, during the morning of February 11. When the lifeboat put out she met seas so mountainous that spray was flying over the lantern of the Ballycotton lighthouse 196ft high.

The 51ft Barnett motor lifeboat Mary Stanford did not return to her station for three days, having been out on service for 63 hours, during which time her crew had slept for only three hours.

For 25 hours they had no food and all came back suffering from colds and salt water burns.

To effect the rescue of the light vessel's crew. Coxswain Sliney took his boat alongside the stricken craft six times as it drifted helplessly towards the rocks.

Each approach risked fouling the vessel's cable and capsizing the lifeboat.

Each plunge and roll of the lightship in the huge seas threatened to crush the Mary Stanford beneath it.

First one man jumped, then none.

Five the next time. On the fourth run the lightship veered violently and her counter crashed on top of the Marv Stanford smashing the rails and damaging the fender and deck.

A fifth time the lifeboat went in and again no-one jumped. The two men left on the lightvessel had become transfixed, clinging to the rails and seemingly unable to jump.

Coxswain Sliney sent some of his crew forward, at the risk of being swept overboard, with orders to seize both men as the lifeboat came alongside.

The strategy worked and at llpm on Friday 13 February, the Mary Stanford, her gallant crew and the eight survivors arrived at Queenstown after one of the most exhausting and courageous rescues in the history of the lifeboat service.

Coxswain Sliney's grandchildren are currently trying to have restored the boat which featured in the Daunt Rock rescue.

The Mary Stanford was bought by Limerick Harbour Board in 1961 and was in service in the Shannon Bay Estuary until four years ago. Brendan Sliney, who works for a Limerick bank, was told she was there and, after negotiating with the harbour board, bought her back for £1.

The cost of restoration is likely to be in the region of IR£18,()0() and the Sliney family are hoping to attract both corporate sponsorship and public support for their scheme to return the Mary Stanford to Ballycotton to be put on permanent display as a memorial tothose who served on her. / have approached a lot of major companies, but with no success, he told me when I met him just before Christmas. It looks as if we will have to get the monev piecemeal, which will not be an easy job.

The Mary Stanford, incidentally, was the first RNLI lifeboat to be awarded a gold medal plaque, in recognition of the part she played in the famous rescue.

Today's lifeboat crew is led by Coxswain Thomas McLeod who, like the majority of his colleagues, is a fisherman.

The Hyman Winstone is taken out for an engineering run every week and there are regular exercises in addition to those supervised by Divisional Inspector John Mankertz.

Station honorary secretary Donal O'Sullivan keeps in touch with the lifeboat when she is at sea via Ballycotton lighthouse. They are very good to us. If the lighthouse is automated, which they say will happen in 1992, it will be a sad loss for us, he said.

Coxswain McLeod agreed: The lighthouse keepers are a great help to us when we are at sea.

Coxswain McLeod has no problems recruiting crew members, despite Ballycotton's small size. There are plenty of enthusiastic voungsters coming through, he told me.

Enthusiasm is also in abundance among Ballycotton's RNLI fund raisers, led by chairman Mrs Betty Murray, wife of the branch treasurer, Mr John Murray.

Last year their efforts, including flag day, the annual regatta and the new year's eve dance raised IR£6,()()0, to the delight of group treasurer Mrs Blathnaid Walsh, whose husband Redmond is emergency mechanic on the Hvman Winstone.

Youghal Youghal's first lifeboat was built for the Harbour Trustees in 1839 by Taylor's of Limehouse, at a cost of £76, met by local subscription.

The town's first lifeboat eventually fell into disrepair and was discovered in 1856 by an inspector of lifeboats, in a sorry state at a local boatyard.

The RNLI decided to take over the station and the following year a new lifeboathouse (costing £100) was built close to the town's lighthouse. At the same time a Boydell's self acting endless railway was provided to enable the boat to be carried along the soft beach.

The present boathouse, built closer to the town in 1876 at a cost of £275, houses one of the fastest classes of lifeboat in the RNLI's fleet, the 29-knot Atlantic 21.

The arrival in 1984 of B561 Marjory Turner followed a year's evaluation of a similar rigid inflatable lifeboat at Youghal. which in turn replaced the station's Liverpool class lifeboat Grace Darling, on station since 1971.

A pool of 18 regular crew members, divided into six teams, attend weekly practice sessions and take part in a full exercise once a month.

An active ladies' guild organises flagdays, raffles, jumble sales and numerous other activities under the leadership of president Miss Ada Donohoe and secretary Mrs Mary Harvey-Williams, raising around IR £2000 annually.

The local angling and sailing clubs are also very supportive, raising further funds at their own summer events.

Branch honorary secretary Tadgh Kelleher works for the Department of Health (Southern Health Board) at a training unit for the mentally handicapped.

He took over his lifeboat duties in 1983 when the Grace Darling was replaced.

Before that his only connection with Youghal lifeboat was via his membership of Youghal Sailing Club.

Other crew members are drawn from the fishing community and many walks of local industry and commerce. Some are unemployed, reflecting the higherthan- the-national-average level of unemployment in Youghal. Their sparetime seaborne activities are the common link between all of them.

In one of her final rescues before leaving Youghal, the self righting 10- oared lifeboat Mary Luckombe went to the aid of the schooner Annetta at 1800 on December 17, 1905.

The vessel, laden with coal, had run ashore opposite the town's railway station and was being swamped by heavy seas in a strong SSE gale. While the lifeboat crew mustered quickly, the rocket apparatus was also turned out, but could make no impression against the force of the gale.

When the lifeboat reached the schooner she was taken over the sunken vessel and rescued three of the crew from the rigging where they had taken refuge.

Coxswain Michael Hannagan was awarded the Institution's silver medal following this gallant service.

The most recent medal service performed by Youghal lifeboatmen occurred on October 27, 1963, when Coxswain Richard Hickey and the crew of the station's 35ft 6in Liverpool class lifeboat Herbert John went to the aid of the French trawler Fedes Ondes, reported to have run aground in Youghal Bay.

Having headed to the search area following her launch at 0629, Herbert John received fresh instructions via Ballycotton lifeboat once the trawler had been found in Ardmore Bay, 300 yards from the beach and rolling heavily with her bows towards the shore.

After a rough passage of seven miles the Youghal lifeboat reached the trawler at 0740 to find that of the crew of nine, seven had already landed on the beach in an inflatable dinghy. The master and one member of the crew had remained aboard.

There were two other men on board, a Youghal skipper and a member of the rocket brigade, who had boarded the trawler by means of the inflatable dinghy in order to try to give help.

The Helvick Head lifeboat John and Lucy Cordingley arrived on the scene about 0830. Both lifeboats attempted to hold the trawler off the rocks but they were unable to do so and had to abandon their efforts. The Helvick Head lifeboat was then recalled and reached her station at 1315.

The trawler, meanwhile, pivoting on a rock, slewed around 120° to port and drove towards the shore into more rocks, her port side exposed to the sea she was holed and began listing dangerously to port. The master then decided to abandon ship.

Youghal lifeboat veered down on to the weather side of the casualty, which was still rolling heavily. Coxswain Hickey found his task was made even more difficult by the trawl boards, which were swinging from the gallows. There was considerable danger from rocks, over which in places there was less than a fathom and a half of water, and the lifeboat was in fact damaged by the trawl boards.

About 11.15 four men jumped into the lifeboat, which then hove off and weighed anchor. She had a rough return passage to Youghal, which she reached at 1230. On her return it was found that the stemhead fitting belting, guardrail stanchions and rudder were all damaged.

For this service the bronze medal for gallantry was awarded to Coxswain Richard Hickey. Medal service certificates were issued to the other members of the crew; M Murphy, M Hennesey, J Murphy, C Hennessy, P Hennessey and J Delaney..