Sir, – I wish to support the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) and others in pleading to conserve the retired Aran Islands ferry the Naomh Éanna (Home News, February 10th).
The Naomh Éanna is an important and wonderful piece of the social history of life on the Aran Islands. It carried everything needed to build and sustain life on the islands. I remember as a small child travelling out and being lowered into currachs off Inisheer, alongside cattle and pigs, lengths of timber, concrete blocks, cylinders of gas, crates of beer. As the pier draught was too shallow, everything and everybody had to be transferred from ship's hold into bobbing currachs and rowed ashore. That in itself was a skilled business, as the sea was often stormy. For the islanders, life was the Naomh Éanna . Its arrival was eagerly awaited twice a week, with family members and guests arriving and departing, along with post, food, building materials and livestock.
My father, Gordon Clark, as public relations manager of Bord Fáilte in the 1960s, was responsible for getting grants to the island houses to install flush toilets and bathrooms to cater for visitors. This injected a new and welcome income stream to the islanders, and brought people from all over the world to experience island life. As children we spent happy summer holidays on Inisheer, and the trips out and back from Galway on the Naomh Éanna were always exciting and hugely educational, witnessing how island society coped with offshore life. (I vividly remember the squealing pig fights in the hold!). Could the now retired Naomh Éanna become a museum, recording and documenting all that happened on board and how it sustained viable life on the Aran Islands? There must be much archival material, photos, and records to keep these memories alive. – Yours, etc,
CLARA CLARK,
Newtownpark Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.