Ireland is the third largest island in Europe so, while you’re there, the history of the Irish naval service is bound to crop up sooner or later. At the National Maritime Museum, located in the former Mariners’ Church in Haigh Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, you can experience the history of Irish seafarers before the Independence.
The church, which ‘harbours’ ship models, photos, documents, and uniforms connected with the history of the Naval Force, was built in 1837 and used to accommodate up to 1400 people as their ships sought shelter in the harbour of Kingstown. The Deed of Trust proclaimed that one third of the seating was reserved for the families of those in the seafaring, coastguard and revenue services. With an ever-decreasing congregation, the Representative Church Body of the Church of Ireland and the Maritime Institute of Ireland reopened the building as the National Maritime Museum of Ireland in 1978. Nowadays only the prisoners’ docks, were those under punishment aboard a vessel could be kept, the stained glass windows and plaques commemorating past rectors attest to the church’s history.
Among its most popular exhibits are the Baily Optic, the still-functioning light of the Baily lighthouse in Howth, the Great Eastern, which was the largest ship in the world when it was constructed in 1857, and Kerlogue, the Irish merchant vessel that rescued so many sailors from their doom in the Bay of Biscay during the Second World War.
The National Maritime Museum is open from the 1st May until the 30th September, from Tuesday to Sunday between 1pm and 5pm. Admission is free although donations are always appreciated.
