Built as a Galway Hooker by Pat & Joe Casey, of Mweenish Island, two brothers, for their one account.
The keel was laid in 1909, work was going slow, two years later was she completed under the name ST PATRICK.
She was built for the brothers who were also the owner of a shop in Mweenish and needed her to carry supplies to and from the island.
Length 40 ft. Sloop rigged.
1912 She carried Padraigh Pearse, Thomas McDonagh and Joseph Plunkett out to the Aran Islands in an attempt to organise support for the Irish Volunteers amongst the islanders, the attempt was a mediocre success it is said.
A couple of years later she was sold to the Conroys from Rosmuc. They were also shop owners and used the ST PATRICK to transport goods from Galway to Rosmuc. With the development of roads the use of her for coastal trade declined.
She was sold to Carraroe near Galway from where she was used to transport turf to the Aran Island for the next 10 years.
But when bottled gas and electricity arrived, she was no longer able to earn her keep and fell into disrepair.
1958 Was she bought by a Micéal Riddle, his brother Peter and a friend Dermot Walsh, at that time she had been moored alongside a pier for a couple of years and not any maintaining during that years took place. She needed a major restoration.
An oil engine was place in, a deck and cabin. After they finish the restoration work she used the ST PATRICK as a yacht. They made many sailing trips all over Galway Bay and to the Aran Islands.
1969 Was she sold Jim O’Meara in West Cork, who in 1973 sold her to her last owner Paddy Barry.
In the end of the 1974 sailing season she ended up in Paddy’s backyard for a major refurbishment which took five years.
1979 Back in the water in pristine splendour she sailed around the west coast of Ireland and toured the traditional regattas in Connemara. Those same years she survived the Fastnet gale in Brandon Bay, County Kerry.
1981 She made a voyage to Spain and back via Brittany and Cornwall.
1985 She sailed the first stage of a passage to America, via Spain, Portugal and on the Madeira and Tenerife where she was taken out of the water for the winter.
1986 Sailed she to the USA with a crew of seven men to take part in the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty on the 4th July 1986 and she was one of around 200 ships and boats which took part in the tall ships Parade of Sail in New York Harbour.
Her return voyage to Ireland was as deck cargo on a cargo vessel from Newark to Liverpool where after she sailed to Dublin.
During May 2002 she was complete wrecked during a gale when she broke her moorings in Glandore harbour near Cork and was driven on the nearby rocks and destroyed.
Ireland 1982 22p sg 524, scott530.
Source:
http://irishislands.info/conmweenish.html http://homepage.eircom.net/~galwayhooker/history.htm
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