dún laoghaire harbour company

Andie MacDowell visits the Harbour!

Caption: Andie MacDowell pictured in the Harbour with Harbour Policemen John O 'Connor,John Gibson and Garry Kelly

Holywood superstar Andie MacDowell visited the Harbour recently where she is starring in the big screen adaption of Maeve Binchy's best selling novel "Tara Road". Scenes in the film were shot in the arrivals area of the ferry terminal building. Voted one of the world's fifty most beautiful women by "People" magazine, MacDowell will appear in the film with Olivia Williams, Brenda Fricker and Stephen Rea. The film tells the story of how the lives of an American woman and an Irish woman change when they take part in a house swap. It will be released next year.

New integrated regatta proposed for the Harbour

The four yacht clubs in the Harbour are discussing a proposal to replace individual club regatta dates next summer in favour of a combined regatta series. The National Yacht Club, The Royal St George Yacht Club, The Royal Irish Yacht Club and the Dún Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club are considering giving up their summer regattas dates - a traditional social highlight of the club year - and contribute instead to the first-year costs of staging, what one official has described as "Cork week on the east coast" from Thursday, July 7 to Sunday July 10, 2005. If the trial regatta is successful the plan is to stage the event in alternate years to the Crosshaven event that could ultimately

attract as many as 1,000 boats for the harbour-based event Given the working title of "Dún Laoghaire regatta championship" the proposers are working on the basis that over time the event could become an international fixture and an event of suitable stature for the Harbour.If the idea gets the go- ahead, it will mark the start of a return to Dún Laoghaire week, a week-long regatta that flourished for many years before petering out in the late 1960s. The Harbour Company will be providing the Race Office and visitor information facilities as part of the regatta organization. (Thanks to David O'Brien for use of information in the above article)

Information Sought

Christmas Eve this year is the 109th anniversary of the worst lifeboat disaster in Irish history. Fifteen members of the Dún Laoghaire lifeboat drowned in 1895 trying to assist a Finnish ship, the Palme, off the West Pier. The coxwain of the lost lifeboat was Alexander Williams and his father Henry was also on board. If any reader has information on relatives of the Williams family, particularly a seaman called William Henry Williams, his Welsh grand-daughter would like to know.

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