Building into the MillenniumRNLI shoreworks manager Howard Richings continues his tour around the coast with a visit to IrelandOkay, so we all make mistakes - there are 38 stations around the coast of Ireland, not 37 as stated at the end of the last article and this will rise to 39 with the establishment of the division's first inland waterway station on Lough Erne. Still, with much coastline to cover we must make haste and cannot tarry long at our first landfall in Rosslare Harbour, where the station's Arun lies afloat in a special pen completed in 1996 along with a new shore facility building.

Sailing south we round Carnsore Point to the harbour at Kilmore Quay Here not only did the lifeboat house undergo a transformation in 1992, when it was rebuilt to house the new Mersey, but the harbour itself was given a major facelift to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Lilly in 1991 and to provide modern quay facilities.

The 1990s saw the establishment of a number of new lifeboat stations and this was particularly true in the Republic of Ireland. Fethard, a short haul across Ballyteige Bay. ts the first we pass. The old lifeboat house still stands but plans are well in hand to convert a recently acquired bungalow to provide new, permanent facilities for the ILB that has been in service since 1996.

Brand new facilities A short journey south-east brings us to Hook Head with its seabird colonies guarding the entrance to Waterford Harbour. On the west side of the harbour mouth lies Dunmore East, proudly sporting the most recently completed new lifeboat facilities in Ireland - a twostorey building at the head of this busy harbour with its many fishing boats. Plans are in hand for the adaptation of the old pilot berth to provide a secure new home for the ALB. The berth will provide protection from the accidental bumps and scrapes from fishing boats jostling for space that have occurred in the past, as well as providing alongside power essential to the current fast afloat lifeboats.

Satisfying the particular requirements of planning authorities is a varied and often challenging job but in Tramore there was no doubt what was needed - a cottage! The site was not so much a green field site as a green bank beside the narrow road leading down to the small harbour. Opened in July 1996, the new boathouse looks deceptively simple, hiding as it does the extensive civil engineering works that hold up the steep bank.

A pleasant day's tacking westwards againsl the prevailing wind brings us to Helvick Head where permanent facilities for the new ILB station were completed in 1999. A slightly more rugged leg past Mine Head and Ram Head brings some welcome shelter in the estuary of the River Blackwater. Not an obviously suitable place for a white whale if it wishes to remain undetected. It was here in Youghal, however, that Gregory Peck filmed the classic Moby Dick. And. if the family album is to be believed. I was there - in short trousers outside the Moby Dick pub. Whether thelifeboat stood by I do not know, but the current boathouse was certainly of the right vintage. All is set to change, however, as at the time of writing tenders are in for the demolition of the boathouse and the building of a new facility to house the Atlantic 75 and its successors.

Onward and westward takes us past Knockadoon Heac - an appropriate name given the RNLI's intentions with respect to both Youghal and our next stop Ballycotton. The station's Trent lies afloat in the harbour with the old slipway boathouse providing a rather damp and chilly home for the crew and the boarding boat. Demolition and rebuilding has been planned for some time but planning consent has only just been received from a reluctant planning authority.

Brand new station More childhood memories are awoken as we enter Cork harbour - the sight of Blackrock Castle after 18 hours crossing the Irish Sea in a Force 8 gale brought a sense of relief that will outlive most other memories. Until recently there was no RNLI presence within Cork harbour but, in 2000, an Atlantic 21 was placed at Crosshaven adjacent to the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

Planning consent has been obtained for a permanent new boathouse. designs are complete and an acceptable tender received. All that remains for work to start is the finafisation of a long-term lease which, hopefully, will be in place by the time this article goes to press.

Sailing on westwards takes us past Courtmacsherry Harbour and Baltimore, both of which had major works undertaken in the 1990s. The former now sports a new stone built boathouse - achieved only after much negotiating with planners - whilst at Baltimore major concrete repairs to one of the oldest reinforced concrete structures in Ireland gave the building a new lease of life and provided much improved crew facilities The south-west corner of Ireland benefits from the balmy airs brought by the Gulf Stream but the blessing is mixed as it is also the first port of call for Atlantic depressions and their attendant storm waves. The deeply indented coastline bears witness to millennia of storms, glaciations and sea-level fluctuations Castletownbere.

tucked into the north shore of Bantry Bay under the Slieve Miskish Mountains, is another of the new stationsimproving the cover to this area. Established in 1998, it awaits provision of permanent shore facilities. Valentia.

one of the long-established west coast stations, had the full works back in 1995 when new facilities were provided for both lifeboats and their crews.

Sailing at leisure One of the reasons for the big effort to fill in the gaps in the cover on this beautiful but exposed coast was the growth in leisure traffic. Our next destination, Fenit, demonstrates both sides of the equation with the new harbour providing a base for yachting and a home for a new ALB and ILB station. In May 2001, the station's new boathouse was formally opened while we slipped quietly by en-route for Kilrush - yes, yet another relatively new station with a new boathouse and slipway completed in 1995, providing important cover to the Shannon estuary.

Our journey north now takes us into Galway Bay and towards one of the most ruggedly beautiful areas of the RNLI's domain. 1996-97 saw the complete rebuilding of Galway's boathouse, a contract that was not without its trials and tribulations. Here there was no possibility of a direct launch via a slipway and the station's Atlantic is davit launched into the harbour over the quay edge.

Galway city is a bustling place and a popular tourist centre, so traffic congestion can occur.

A few hours sailing to the west is the perfect antidote. Approaching the harbour at Kilronan on the Aran Islands, the station's Severn class lifeboat lies prominently afloat at its mooring in the bay. The nearest thing to a traffic jam occurs on the quay when one of the ferries arrives with its load of tourists to be met by the local mini-buses. We decide to join the mix of European and American visitors ashore and enjoyed a good meal and a bracing walk around the shores of the harbour with their myriad of wild flowers. A maze of dry stone walls cover the low rocky hills enclosing small fields, some with grazing horses or cattle, others providing shelter for early potatoes. The lifeboat house - comprising two small buildings atop a slipway on the south side of the harbour - is due a major makeover, which will be put in hand as soon as boundaries and titles are agreed. The three islands of Inis Mor, Inis Meam and Inis Oirr are a heartland of the Gaeltacht - areas where the Irish(Gaeilge) language is spoken much as it has been for the last 1,000 years.

The crossing back to the mainland brings us our first sight of the magical hills of Connemara. A fresh westerly wind brought us to Cltfden m late afternoon and to a mooring adjacent to the newer of the station's two boathouses. To the north-east, the often bare, ice-worn rocky landscape rise into the clouds. The station's Atlantic 21 is housed in a new boathouse that boasts some of the best stonework of any boathouse, old or new. The station's D class is housed a mile or so away within sight of the town's distinctive twin church spires. Such is the nature of the coast and the extent of the area covered that the rig can be launched from any of 11 different locations.

After a brief spetl of shore leave to visit Kylemore Abbey and its recently restored Victorian walled gardens and gothic chapel, we follow the deceptively barren looking coast northwards crossing Clew Bay to County Mayo Achill Island and Ballyglass are another two stations established m the 1990s but, whereas the latter had its permanent facilities completed in 1993, Achill has had to await the acquisition of a suitable site before proper facilities can be built.

Yeats country Sailing due east we pass Downpatrick Head and cross the broad mouth of Kallala Bay. Under the watchful eye of Queen Maeve from her cairn we arrive on the north coast of Sligo County and enter Yeats country. Should WB Yeats' brother Jack revisit the area which inspired him m some future incarnation, the new Sligo Bay lifeboat house - currently under construction - at Rosses Point might feature in an updated version of his famous watercolour Memory Harbour. The blue jacketed Metal Man featured in the painting still stands on his pedestal m the entrance channel directing incoming vessels. This guide to sailors is one of three similar statues reportedly presented to Ireland by the French as thanks for assistance to shipwrecked French sailors. Also doing well was the lobster m Harry's Bar who. at the time of our visit, was freshly recovered from shedding his shell and building his strength on smoked salmon. Skylarks soared overhead as we left the workmen casting concrete and placing stone to form the slipway and site for the new boathouse.

Benbulben's sheer slopes are topped by ominous black clouds as we set course in a freshening westerly wind for Donegal Bay just after lunch on a late May day.

Then, just as we prepare for the worst, the clouds lift and the mountains transform in sudden afternoon sun from sullen threatening masses to beckoning light green slopes topped with dramatic, vertically etched cliffs rising to a plateau top at nearly 2,000 feet. Throughout the afternoon we are treated to the various faces of Benbulben as we follow the south shore of the bay with its gently sloping rock ledges.

This same geology also forms the off-shore reefs on which the surf builds, attracting surfers and jet skiers and keeping the local lifeboat crew on their toes.

The picturesque harbour of Mullaghmore was dry on the low tide. This fortunately did not extend to harbour side pubs nor, thanks to the efforts of the RNLI and Donegal County Council, to the approach channel to the slipway at Bundoran. The new lifeboat house was completed in 1994 with the channel being progressively improved m 1994, 1997 and 2000.

The coastline north to Arranmore on Aran Island is rugged and wild with many channels and islets. The island's ALB lifeboat remains afloat at a buoyed mooring but the facilities for both the crew and the boarding boat operation have been much improved in a series of projects from 1994 to the present. Work on remote island sites is always a challenge and there are many visual reminders that economics often result in a oneway ticket for mechanical appliances.

Bloody Foreland Head marks our course turning eastwards to our next port of call. Lough Swilly, a new double ILB facility (Atlantic 75 and D class) being completed here in 1995. Last year an ALB was added with a berth being created alongside the pier at Buncrana.

Into the North...

One final tack northwards brings us around the rugged northernmost point of mainland Ireland, Malin Head, and south-eastwards along the coast of Inishowen before crossing the mouth of Lough Foyle to the softer coast of Antrim with its sandy beaches and the famous golf links ,n Portrush. The slipway boathouse was modified and improved in 1993 and 1995. The ALB now lies afloat with the boathouse being home to a D class and a boarding boat. No trip along the north Antrim coast would be complete without mention of the Giant's Causeway. It only requires a little imagination to see it as the remains of some massive slipway sweeping down from the cliffs.

After passing through Rathlin Sound and rounding Benmore Head we set course southwards with the Mull of Kintyre visible off the port side and the Antrim Mountains forming a backdrop to starboard as we approach Red Bay Completed m 1995 this was one of the earlier Ireland division boathouses to be rebuilt to modern standards. In Larne things took a little longer but facilities for the station's Arun and D class are now substantially finished.

Soon the same should be able to be said of Bangor.

on the south shore of Belfast Lough, where our arrival coincided with the erection of the steel frame for the new boathouse - an activity always accompanied by anxiety in case bits don't quite fit.

But all was well in the end and the station should be moving in before the end of the year.

A short haul brings us to Donaghadee wherework was completed on a major extension in 1998, providing the station with much improved facilities. We then sail down the coast of the Ards Peninsula - that narrow strip of land which separates Strangford Lough from the open sea. At BaHyquintin Point a near 180° turn brings us into the narrow entrance to the lough and to Portaferry, notable on this voyage as one of the few stations that has not had recent significant work undertaken, except for the regular triennial upkeep and maintenance.

The same cannot be said of Newcastle, at the eastern reach of Dundrum Bay. The arrival of the station's Mersey class ALB was preceded by the building of a new boathouse and slipway, completed in 1993 and funded from the generous Penza legacy. The coastline now rises with the dramatic backdrop of the Mourne Mountains accompanying us to Kilkeel, home of one of the few davit launched Atlantic ILBs. In 1992 the station moved across the harbour to a new purpose built boathouse.

... and back to the Republic A course a few points west of south takes us past the mouth of Carlingford Lough and back into the Republic of Ireland. Clogher Head's Mersey class lifeboat house was completed in 1993 and provides a useful navigation mark set at the top of the beach. The coastline south past Drogheda is gentle and low lying with just an occasional rolling green hill. The Rockabill light marks our next destination lying some 6km offshore from the Skerries, where new facilities for the Atlantic 21 and its crew were completed in 1997.

A closer watch on the navigation is required as we approach Dublin, The islet of Ireland's Eye closely followed by the Nose of Howth brings us to the north side of Dublin Bay. Howth's current boathouse is very distinctive and, although modified in 1997, it lacks many of the facilities now considered essential. Plans are currently being developed to provide improved facilities for both the lifeboats and their crews.

Ferries regularly ply in and out of Dublin to Douglas and Holyhead. Dun Laoghaire, with its twin breakwaters encompassing the man-made harbour, is home to a recently arrived Trent class ALB and a D class ILB. The latter is housed m a fine old stone build boathouse whilst the former lies afloat at a mooring. New shore facilities were completed in 1999 and the final touch should be put to the station with the completion of a long awaited new boarding berth for the Trent later this year.

The Wicklow Mountains rise inland as we sail south, providing good walking country for those who prefer firmer ground under foot. Wicklow lifeboat station is one of only two remaining slipway stations in Ireland. The Tyne launches down a shallow slipway into the normally sheltered waters of the harbour but, even here, the sea can be destructive and waves running down the adjacent harbour wall have caused damage to the boathouse doors.

A D class was added to the station in 1995 with accompanying additional shore facilities completed in 1998.

Major repairs were also undertaken to the slipway last year.

A series of sandy beaches and links golf courses bring us to the estuary of the River Avoca and to Arklow. where the Trent lies at a pontoon - about to be replaced - and the boathouse is notable for the neat garden that greets visitors. The final leg of our Irish experience takes us past the ILB station at Courtown, where work was in hand on extending and re-grading the launching slipway. From here the long sandy beaches sweep down to Wexford Bay completing our circumnavigation of the island of Ireland. With the main summer season rapidly approaching we shall continue northwards after a short break to recharge our batteries in Fishguard harbour..