FX30

SATURDAY 19 AUGUST

For nearly 190 years an all-weather lifeboat has launched into Dublin Bay from Howth and the crews have been honoured with 20 awards for gallantry. Today the station operates both a Trent class lifeboat and an inshore D class lifeboat.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It is one of several lifeboat services operating in the same area.

Founded in 1824 as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, it soon afterwards became the Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck under the patronage of King George IV. On 5 October 1854, the institution’s name was changed to its current name (RNLI), and in 1860 was granted a royal charter.

The RNLI is a charity in the UK and in Ireland and has enjoyed royal patronage since its foundation, the most recent being Queen Elizabeth II until her death on 8 September 2022. The RNLI is principally funded by legacies (65%) and donations (28%), with the remainder from merchandising and investment. Most of the members of its lifeboat crews are unpaid volunteers.

The RNLI is based in Poole, Dorset. It has 238 lifeboat stations and operates 444 lifeboats. RNLI lifeguards operate on more than 200 beaches: the lifeguards are paid by local authorities, but the RNLI provides equipment and training. The institution also operates flood rescue teams nationally and internationally, the latter prepared to travel to emergencies overseas at short notice.

Considerable effort is put into training and education by the institution, particularly for young people; in 2013, more than 6,000 children a week were spoken to by education volunteers about sea and beach safety, and over 800 children a week received training. Crews rescued on average 22 people a day in 2015. The institution has saved some 140,000 lives since its foundation, at a cost of more than 600 lives lost in service.

MILLTOWN ROAD IN CLONSKEAGH

This series features images of the area between the Nine Arches an the small footbridge connecting Milltown Road and Bankside Cottages.

It took me more than a year to find the name of this bridge but a few years ago a local told me that it was the oldest bridge in Dublin but he could not remember its name but it had something to do with horses. The bridge is Packhorse Bridge.

A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapets so as not to interfere with the panniers borne by the horses. Multi-arched examples sometimes have triangular cutwaters that are extended upward to form pedestrian refuges.

Packhorse bridges were often built on the trade routes (often called packhorse routes) that formed major transport arteries across Europe and Great Britain until the coming of the turnpike roads and canals in the 18th century. Before the road-building efforts of Napoleon, all crossings of the Alps were on packhorse trails. Travellers’ carriages were dismantled and transported over the mountain passes by ponies and mule trains.

HOWTH RNLI LIFEBOAT STATION

THE RIVER DODDER AND PACKHORSE BRIDGE