Travel the length and breadth of the Irish coastline and you will be greeted in almost every harbour of any size by the familiar blue-andorange livery of RNLI lifeboats.

At first this may come as no surprise, but between two harbours it is quite possible to have crossed an international border, and yet to find the same type of lifeboat wearing the same livery on either side of the boundary.

The RNLI has always operated throughout the whole of Ireland, its 1854 Charter defining its role in the saving of life at sea ' around the coasts of Britain and Ireland' and the fact that for more than 50 years one part has been the Republic of Ireland and the other a part of the UK has had no effect on its lifesaving work.

Indeed it was only relatively recently that fundraising efforts have been split between the two parts, which also avoids the difficulties in dealing with two currencies in one fundraising area! The RNLI's lifeboats can, and do, work with other SAR organisations from each side of the border, sometimes on the same service. National distinctions have a habit of disappearing when lives are at stake and everyone unites behind the common goal of rescue at sea.

The whole of the coastline covered by the RNLI is subject to periodical reviews of the lifeboat coverage and this has led inevitably both to closures and the opening of new stations as demand has waxed and waned with changes in trade and potential risk.

The far west of Ireland, a rugged coast open to the worst the North Atlantic can muster, has seen several new stations set up over the past few years as trade off its shores and increasing leisure use of the water has increased the demand for lifeboats.

'the two new both became on closer examination'new locations became obvious closer examination' When Clifden's inshore lifeboat station was established in 1988 there were only three other stations on the long west coast - at Valentia (established 1864) to the south, Galway Bay almost in the centre (established 1927) and Arranmore (established in 1883) to the north.

Hard on the heels of Clifden's C class came an all-weather lifeboat station at Ballyglass (1989) and then in early 1994 an Atlantic 21 station at Bundoran, where an independant rescue service joined forces with the Institution under the RNLI banner.

Increasing activity along the coast soon made it clear that even more stations were needed, and so the long gap between the all-weather Arun class stations at Galway Bay and Valentia came under review.

What was needed, the coast review delegation said, was another allweather station on the northern side of the long Dingle peninsula and an Atlantic station near the mouth of the-river Shannon. The allweather station would take over an area in the extreme north of Valentia's 'patch', where the time taken to arrive at an incident would soon be unacceptable. The additional lifeboat would then be able to provide good coverage north of Dingle and out into the Atlantic off the ever-busier Shannon approaches. The increased leisure use and the commercial traffic using the growing port of Foynes further up the river meant that the Atlantic should be based somewhere near the mouth of the river, its speed enabling her to cover the estuary and large sections of the coast outside. The fact that the River Shannon is now under the approach flight path to a busy international airport was also part of the equation.

There are always a limited number of locations from which a lifeboat can be operated satisfactorily - suitable shelter and shoreside facilities, a centre of population to provide a crew, access to the areasin which the lifeboat will be needed and the relationship to nearby stations are all key considerations.

But as is so often the case the two new locations both became obvious on closer examination.

Fenit had once been an all-weather lifeboat station but had been closed in 1969 in the face of declining calls. Although the old boathouse and slipway were no longer suitable the sheltered harbour could be dredged to provide an afloat Arun berth and the 'folk memory' of the old lifeboat and closeness of Tralee would provide the enthusiasm and the crew.

The Atlantic soon found a new base at Kilrush. Once a busy port in the days of sail it had declined into virtual disuse until Shannon Developments turned it into an enormous locked basin with the aid of EC funds. Now the home of a growing marina and a busy shipyard the town also had an active and enthusiasticfundraising branch. It also had a secret weapon in the shape of Adrian O'Connel, the enthusiastic Honorary Secretary who had helped set up the Clifden station and who now ran the Kilrush Boatyard! Shannon Developments were also keen supporters and a suitable site was soon found for theAtlantic's boathouse and slipway, just outside the lock and with easy access to the harbour's deep water approach channel.

And so when I visited the area briefly in June of this year the air was alive with anticipation. The Regional Conference in Tralee gave the first inkling of the excitement pervading this stretch of coastline, with not one but two new stations expected.

A visit to Fenit found a temporaryPortakabin in place on the quayside, manned by a busy mechanic attending to the innumerable last minute jobs, a large dredged hole just off the harbour wall waiting for some mooring chains to be laid and half the crew away in Poole for their initial training course. The other half was to follow shortly and bring their Arun triumphantly home.

The newly-appointed Honorary Secretary chatted to me in a break from lecturing in his Tralee college. Father Geroid O Donnchadha is a very experienced yachtsman, having cruised the Atlantic and the North Sea in the yacht now riding quietly at her mooring in Fenit.

'What casualties do you expect?' I asked. His smiled reply was disarming: 'As few as possible!' A realistic answer to an impossible question. Deeper probing brought forth information about the dangers of the rugged coast around the area and the growing commercial traffic passing by on its way to the Shannon, but usually out of sight over the horizon. Valentia's Arun would be working at the very limits of her range up here and the Fenit station was poised to take that part of the load from them and to close the gap with the Arun at Galway Bay.Ireland has recently seen the formation of the Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES), an organisation which will fulfil a similar role to the UK' s Coastguard, and a demonstration in Dingle Harbour on a fine, sunny Sunday served to illustrate how it was bringing all of the SAR organisations in the area together. Valentia' s Arun 'rescued' a yacht while cliff rescue and inshore rescue services showed how they would tackle an incident, publicising the SAR facilities in County Kerry very effectively to the large crowd which had gathered for the occasion.

Heading north to see where Kilrush's Atlantic is to be based takes the traveller across the wide mouth of the Shannon - a half-hour crossing - and brings home the need for a lifeboat on what is almost misleadingly called a 'river'. Its wide estuary opens out into virtual inland seas and commercial and pleasure traffic is increasing steadily. The coastline here is a little less rugged, but the tides run hard and the rocks still abound. The area is, like so much of the west coast, thriving and thetown's marina and commercial traffic in the Shannon will produce enough potential to justify a lifeboat.

The contrast between the two new stations is interesting. In Fenit there were people who remembered the old lifeboat; Kilrush's will be its first. Fenit is an all-weather station needing only dredging for an afloat berth; Kilrush's inshore lifeboat will have to have an entirely new boathouse and slipway built. Fenit's lifeboat was due withinweeks; yet Kilrush's Atlantic will not make her appearance till at least mid-1995. Yet despite the chalk-and-cheese aspects of the two stations there is the same irrepressible enthusiasm, the satisfaction in being chosen to operate a new lifeboat. Kilrush branch chairman, and honorary secretary designate, Adrian O'Connel has been through all this before, when he was involved with the creation of Clifden's C class station, yet he is more than willing to repeat all of the hard work involved. Shannon Developments are right behind the RNLI and, as owners of the yard which Adrian runs and the operators of the new locked harbour, their support has been invaluable.

In the town the branch is excited and working flat out to bring in even more funds - for a relatively small town only recently renewing its acquaintance with its port the RNLI has a very high profile indeed - perhaps as a result of the town's legendary hospitality and the excellent Stout served locally! Adrian is patient, he knows that planning and building the station will take time, but he also knows that the plans are now almost unstoppable. The wheels are in motion and it is only a question of time before a new boathouse sits where only grass now grows and that the enthusiastic potential crew members are enthusiastic operational crew members.

Working one' s way back to the ferry home gives a chance to collect the scattered thoughts and impressions of this essential part of the Institution's world. Little things come to mind: the Irish Tricolour flying from a lifeboat in RNLI livery; the warmth of the hospitality; the overwhelming grandeur and danger of the coastline; the feeling of enthusiasm. Inevitably, given the relative size of land mass and population, the bulk of the RNLI's stations and the greater number of its supporters lie to the east of the Irish sea, but no one on the eastern side of the water should think of the western side as a far-flung part of the empire. The RNLI is everywhere, its centre is where you are at any given time - and National Organiser Jimmy Kavanagh was only half joking when he talked about Irish events 'over here on the mainland...' to the Tralee conference..