ASGARD relaunched

[Greengoddess]

FYI

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...321294182.html

[C. Flower]

FYI

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...321294182.html

Wonderful.

On May 28th, 1914, Darrell Figgis, the Irish writer and political activist, and Erskine Childers, a writer and republican, travelled to Hamburg where they negotiated the purchase of 1,500 rifles and 49,000 rounds of ammunition from arms firm Moritz Magnus jnr.
With Roger Casement acting as liaison between the London committee and the Irish Volunteers in Dublin, it was arranged that Childers would collect the arms shipment in his yacht Asgard.
Although half the shipment was to be collected by the yacht Kelpie, in the event Asgard transported 900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition, with Kelpie taking the rest.
Sandra Heise, curator of the Asgard exhibition, said the exhibition aimed to tell the yacht’s story from her commissioning as a wedding gift for the Childers in 1905, to her role in the Howth gun-running and her eventual use as Ireland’s first national sail-training vessel.
The opening of the permanent exhibition, Asgard: The 1914 Howth Gun-Running Vessel Conserved, will be launched at The National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, in Dublin next Wednesday at 6pm.

[Sam Lord]

Was Dulcibella based on the Asgard?

[Greengoddess]

Was Dulcibella based on the Asgard?

No, it was a wedding present from his father in law.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

I had the pleasure of being out on the Asgard when I was a boy and loved every minute of it. We were allowed to take the wheel by turns and I realised instantly what the great writers of the sea meant when they tried to get across the feel of a ship under your hands. It did feel alive and as if you had your hand flat on the neck of a racehorse.

A lovely vessel and I must admit when the Asgard went down in the Bay of Biscay I was fairly heartbroken at the thought of it.

[Sam Lord]

No, it was a wedding present from his father in law.

Oh, it was an actual boat. I thought it was a fictional character. So the boat in the novel was given the same name as a boat he actually owned? Was the Dulcibella in the novel a replica of the real Dulcibella?

[Sam Lord]

I had the pleasure of being out on the Asgard when I was a boy and loved every minute of it. We were allowed to take the wheel by turns and I realised instantly what the great writers of the sea meant when they tried to get across the feel of a ship under your hands. It did feel alive and as if you had your hand flat on the neck of a racehorse.

A lovely vessel and I must admit when the Asgard went down in the Bay of Biscay I was fairly heartbroken at the thought of it.

That's a different Asgard.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Yes- I'm aware that the Asgard II was left on the bottom of the Bay of Biscay while some bloody Irish Committee fiddled with their diaries for a meeting during the period when a recovery would have been possible.

Does the Taoiseach of Germany's latest dominion still travel by Government jet?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

I still wonder what cargo the Asgard II was carrying when it went down in the Bay. There was mention of a cargo but no mention of what it was in the incident report. And then there was the question of what a sail training vessel was doing acting as a cargo vessel?

Or is this one of those eternal Irish mysteries where eyebrows are raised and at the bottom of it is some gombeen connected with the Committee running it doing some business on the side?

[Greengoddess]

Yes- I'm aware that the Asgard II was left on the bottom of the Bay of Biscay while some bloody Irish Committee fiddled with their diaries for a meeting during the period when a recovery would have been possible.

Does the Taoiseach of Germany's latest dominion still travel by Government jet?

This is one of the reasons that the restoring of Asgard 1 is especially good. I remember the Minister at the time of the sinking of Asgard 11 calling it " the vehicle", much to the shock of the sailing community .

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Hmm. I noticed a distinct lack of ethusiasm as well at the notion of recovery for Asgard II while weather permitted. I seem to recall that the story was the ship hit some debris and was holed and sank fairly quickly. I know these wooden hulled ships were open to that kind of disaster but it must have been some bang and at a particularly unfortunate angle and of course I saw no mention of any determination what the obstacle was- if it was heavy enough to have been just under the surface it wouldn't have gone far from the accident site and strange that there didn't seem to be much effort to find out what it was.

The instincts started to jangle alright around mention of 'cargo'- and I immediately began to wonder whether there was a heavy cargo that shifted and damaged the hull from the inside.

The apparent lazy unconcern for raising her still makes me suspicious that they didn't want her examined.

Conspiracy theory certainly- but there was an unusual smell around the incident and the report and if I know my gombeens, and I do, there may well have been some sort of gombeenery around that incident. It just smells funny.

[C. Flower]

Relaunched, albeit on dry land...

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/asgard/

The text of Labour M.E.P Nessa Childer’s words at the opening.

The Asgard has travelled a long way to be here, as have many members of my family. I am delighted to see them. The restoration has a importance for the Childers family that is unique to us. Each family member has a different perspective in relation to the Asgard and my grandfather. I can only speak for myself. The baby of the family and the third public representative. I do not have the same detailed historical knowledge of the others because there was a curious silence around these issues. Not unusual it seems, in some families who were participants in those turbulent times.
However the part that is alive for me is from the perspective of being a politician in a part of history which is, in it’s own way, as intense and even dangerous as the place in history that grandfather lived and died in. It is hard to describe how difficult and painful it is to preside over the loss of sovereignty and onset of poverty that we the elected, are now responsible for. As such I can’t help but see the similarities between then and now. This is not insignificant. Every person is, at least in part, influenced by their political and cultural past. We must therefore interrogate that past. Once again we have been threatened by overwhelming forces and retreated .Twice. One of those threats indeed, was an unpopular Treaty. What can we learn from similar events in our history? For one thing that a price is always paid for choosing between stability and freedom. The compromise of 1921 had such a price. For ourselves and others across the border. And for my family.
What of the Asgard and its pivotal place in history? For me it seems that it was fundamentally a bold gesture. A signal to others of confidence and defiance. The act of an Englishman who possessed perhaps an imperial hubris which had its own place. We talk a lot about signals these days. Many of them have been gestures of cooperation and compliance in the cause of stability . We need to ask ourselves if at some point the price of peace will be too high. If the answer to that is “yes”, another bold and radical act will be needed by an Irish government. That much is certain. I am proud to be the descendent of Robert Erskine Childers and to see the Asgard take its place for another generation to see.

[C. Flower]

Some nice photos of the Asgard - a bit shiny and new looking, but at least saved.
It will get some age about itself soon enough.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...1530943&type=1

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

We talk a lot about signals these days. Many of them have been gestures of cooperation and compliance in the cause of stability . We need to ask ourselves if at some point the price of peace will be too high. If the answer to that is “yes”, another bold and radical act will be needed by an Irish government. That much is certain.

I'm becoming quite fond of Ms Childers. She has a sensibility for symbols and signals and the impact they can have. I wouldn't forget either the sterling attempt at highlighting the nonsense around Cardiff's appointment to a mouthshutter job in Geneva and her efforts at European level in forming opposition to that appointment.

Ms Childers shows signs of being one of only two Irish politicians in my lifetime with any bit of discernible principle suspected about them and the other is dead (Jim Kemmy).

Good words.

[C. Flower]

I'm becoming quite fond of Ms Childers. She has a sensibility for symbols and signals and the impact they can have. I wouldn't forget either the sterling attempt at highlighting the nonsense around Cardiff's appointment to a mouthshutter job in Geneva and her efforts at European level in forming opposition to that appointment.

Ms Childers shows signs of being one of only two Irish politicians in my lifetime with any bit of discernible principle suspected about them and the other is dead (Jim Kemmy).

Good words.

I agree that it is an honest and thoughtful speech, a fine speech, really.

Nice and short, too

The "bold step" makes me think of "the leap" which can come about in the 'normal' flow of events, as observed in dialectics.