Council working to find home in Docklands for salvaged stern of the ship "Naomh Éanna"

Somebody had fixed a poster to the MacMahon Bridge over the Grand Canal Basin.

Come see the restored stern of the Naomh Éanna, an old passenger ferry that once operated between Galway and the Aran Islands, the poster read.

It’s now at the rear of the Ringsend-Irishtown Community Centre, it said.

The ferry had sat for years in the basin’s graving docks, decaying and eventually capsizing in the summer of 2023.

But in January 2024, members of the Ringsend and District Historical Society salvaged the vessel’s stern with a view to restoring it for public display – which they did.

The stern sat next to a shed behind the community centre on Tuesday, with its surface covered in a gleaming new coat of green paint.

Its white lettering too had been restored to resemble the ferry depicted in posters that were hanging around the Ringsend area.

This isn’t meant to be its permanent home. 

Where the stern will end up hasn’t been fully determined yet. 

But Dublin City Council is currently looking at incorporating it into its new Dodder Bridge project, the council’s area manager Brian Hanney says.

###Identifying a new location

At a meeting of the council’s South East Area Committee on 8 September, Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne asked if the council would consider installing a public art sculpture as part of the new landscaping area in front of the new Dodder Bridge.

In her written query, she asked if the council could write to the National Transport Authority about providing funding for this potential installation at the bridge at the east end of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.

The council was exploring the possibility of installing the Naomh Éanna’s stern there, the response from Hanney, the area manager said. “A feasibility study is underway to assess potential solutions and determine how this might be achieved.”

On Monday evening, at the South East Area Committee meeting, Sinn Féin Councillor Kourtney Kenny put forward a motion proposing another location proposal for the stern. 

She asked the council to liaise with the local historical society and possibly put it on display out on the Great South Wall.

Holding on to the history in the area is important, Kenny said at the meeting. “And it’s also a way of ensuring that everybody has their own identity and relates back, ‘Oh my uncle worked there,’ or ‘They worked on this’.”

A good location would be near the Fisherman’s Wharf apartments on York Road, she said, “on the start of the Great South Wall, just so we can showcase all the great work that’s going on, really embracing our local history”.

Kenny’s ideal location is just to the east of the new Dodder Bridge location, which the council is currently considering.

Either way, Byrne said the council should be doing something to make sure it is displayed, in honour of the work done by the historical society.

If the council goes with Kenny’s proposed location, though,  would there be an alternative piece of public art that went to the bridge? Byrne asked.

Hanney, speaking at the meeting, said the council received a request from the historical society to place the stern beside the new Dodder Bridge, and that was referred on to the roads design team. 

“We do liaise with the historical society on a regular basis, so we’re happy to support these requests,” he said.

While the council is considering putting the stern to the west end of the new bridge, councillors agreed to support Kenny’s motion to possibly put it to the east of the bridge.