Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company

Captain Christopher Cassedy

Captain Cassedy was the Harbour Master in Dun Laoghaire from 1933 to 1938. The Company has received a significant amount of information from Captain Cassedy's grandson, Paul Cassedy, which is being put on the Company website and will be of interest to local historians. Prior to his appointment, Captain Cassedy served with a number of shipping companies and was acting Harbour Master at the time of the Eucharistic Congress in 1932 overseeing the arrival in the Harbour of the Papal Legate, Lorenzo Cardinal Lauri. Captain Cassedy later returned to sea and perished, along with all hands on 24th February 1944 when his vessel Cymric, en route from Ardrossan to Lisbon, sank. No wreckage was ever found and the sinking may have been due to weather, hitting a mine, being sunk by a U-boat, or being driven by a gale into the prohibited area of the Bay of Biscay and then sunk by Allied aircraft.

Captain Cassedy was the recipient of the British War Medal, the British Marine War Medal (WW1) and a posthumous 4 Bar Medal of Valour from the Irish Mercantile Office.

See the Company website at: www.dlharbour.ie/content/company/
biography.php?bioid=5

RNLI report for 2008

The RNLI report for 2008 showed that its station in the Harbour was the busiest in Ireland for the year with 54 launches and 57 people rescued. Overall, Irish lifeboats launched 863 times and rescued 993 people. The lifeboats in Crosshaven, Cork and Howth were the next busiest. The three most common calls for help are the result of machinery failure/damage, stranded vessels/people and medical emergencies.