East Pier Maritime Murals

The sailing vessel, the SOREN LARSEN was constructed by the Danish family of Soren Larsen & Sons at their shipyard in Nykoping Mors in Denmark in 1949. The ship was mainly employed on the Baltic sea routes and north European waters, and occasionally ventured as far afield as Iceland, and the United Kingdom. In 1972, the ship was gutted by fire and was laid up until 1978, when the hull was bought by Square Sail Britain. Being fully restored under their watch, she was re-decked with iroko timber and re-masted with Douglas Fir, and finally re-rigged as a 19th century-style brigantine. The vessel's new homeport became Colchester in the U.K.  On resuming operations in 1979, the SOREN LARSEN saw extensive use in television and film productions, which helped in a big way towards her overall restoration costs. She became well known for her regular appearances in the BBC series 'Onedin Line',  and the films, 'French Lieutenant's Woman', 'In Search for the Mary Ce...

  The SOTA EDUARDO was built in 1974 by the shipyard, Astilleros Y Talleres Celaya in Bilbao for the Sota Line, which was based in the Basque Region in northern Spain. She was one of two small sister coastal cargo vessels, the other being named the SOTA ALEJANDRO. They both traded to Wicklow Port on a regular basis from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s with cargoes of chipboard and other building materials from Bilbao and possibly, Marin. Their cargo capacity was just over 1000 tons, which made them the smallest vessels owned by this company. On 15th July 1985, distress calls from the SOTA EDUARDO were received by emergency services  as the vessel had got into serious difficulties north-east of the Humber while on passage from the Spanish port of Marin to Scarborough in Yorkshire with a cargo of chipboard. Rescue helicopters from R.A.F. Boulemar and R.A.F. Leconfield were immediately dispatched to the scene, as were the R.N.L.I. lifeboats from the Humber and Flamborough. The ca...

The tugboat, the DUNHERON was launched and completed in July 1955 as the GOLDEN CROSS by shipbuilders, Scott & Sons, Bowling for Tees Towing Co. Ltd., Middlesbrough.  The vessel held this name until 1968, when she was sold and her name changed to the  DUNHERON, a name which she held for many years under different owners. At one stage, from 1972 to 1977, she was under the Irish ownership of A.C. Cranes Ltd., Dublin, and after that was operated by Carmel Tugs Ltd. of Bromborough until 1991. In 1996, she was purchased for preservation by a Captain White of London, and was reputedly owned by actress, Suzie Wong. On 30th October 2006, she assisted the Royal Yacht, the BRITANNIA on an overseas departure and was the sole escort for that vessel on the final stage of her last voyage in 1997. During this deployment, her name reverted to H.M.R.T. (Her Majesty's Royal Tug) GOLDEN CROSS. In 2012, this interesting vessel was bought by a group of volunteers and moored at Ardentinny, Scot...

  I was delighted to be given an official tribute by Wicklow County Council with a new sign on the East Pier wall marking my near-50 years of maritime murals.  A big thank you to Cathoirleach of the CoCo, Cnllr. Paul O'Brien for launching this dedication, which includes a QR Code to view my murals and the stories that inspired them.  My sincere thanks also to the Harbour Master, Colm Dempsey who organised the installation of the sign. Photos courtesy of Willie Byrne.

  The ROSA & ADA (F 105) was the largest and biggest gaff cutter, rigged fishing smack built by Collar Bros, Whitstable in 1908 for the Seasalter & Ham Oyster Company at that port, with whom she worked until 1963. A smack boat is a type of traditional fore-and-aft-rigged fishing vessel, often with a well to keep the catch alive. They were common along the coasts of Britain and America, particularly in the 19th century. During World War II, the ROSA & ADA was requisitioned as a supply tender in the River Thames, where she serviced vessels searching for magnetic mines. In 1958, the vessel was run down at her moorings by a coaster in thick fog and sank. She was refloated shortly afterwards, repaired, and continued to work till 1963. Following several years in lay-up, the ROSA & ADA was bought privately, restored, and was then used for racing, while kept at Hollowshore in Kent. In 1981, she was bought by her present owner who sailed her to west Scotland. During the foll...

This gaff ketch rigged fishing smack was launched on 22nd April 1884 at the Garrison Side yard of William McCann shipbuilders at Hull for the 'City' fleet of Messrs. Simpson & Bowman of Hull, as one of a class of 10 long line sailing trawlers, all named after cities - in this case, the 'City of Edinboro'. These vessels typically worked the Dogger Bank and other associated North Sea fishery areas for cod. Their daily catch was always transferred to a fast steamer, which allowed them to stay at sea for weeks. It was gruelling work! In 1897, she was sold on to an Icelandic fish merchant in Reykjavik and renamed FRIDA, and fished regularly in Icelandic and Greenland waters until 1913. From then on, until 1967, the vessel worked under three successive Faroese owners, fishing in the same North Atlantic waters and sporting the respective names of the SOLVABORG, the SOLVASKER and the SJOBORGON. In 1980, she was discovered by Henry Irving in the Faroes and brought back to Hu...

The R.M.S. (Royal Mail Steamer) TITANIC was built by Harland & Wolff Shipbuilding Company in Belfast, and was launched on 31st May 1911 for the White Star Line. Being the largest ship afloat on entering service, she sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage to Cherbourg with approximately 2,240 people on board, of whom 885 were crew members. The construction and fitting out of this notable passenger liner cost somewhere in the region of £1.5 million, which would have been equivalent to £180 million in 2023! The R.M.S. TITANIC was the second in a new class of liners, larger than anything that had come before, which was designed as the last word in comfort and luxury. As well as carrying some of the wealthiest people in the world, she accommodated hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Europe, and Ireland, who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. Following port calls at Southampton, Cherbourg, and Queenstown (Cobh), the TITANIC headed into the Atlantic, ...

  This stylish sail training ship, the TS ROYALIST, was designed by well-known naval architect, Colin Mudie as a brig which is a type of sailing vessel defined by it's rig - in this case, two masts which are square-rigged. She was built by Groves & Guttridge in East Cowes, the Isle of Wight, and was launched on 3rd August 1971 by Princess Anne. She was operated by the Marine Society & Sea Cadets of the UK, and had a dedicated crew of 8, and accommodated up to 24 trainees on each voyage. She visited many ports around the UK, France, and several Irish ports. Because of her age, she was decommissioned in November 2014 to make way for a newer brig-rigged vessel of the same name, which was built in Spain. Looking back on her 43 years of service, up to 30,000 cadets benefited from great offshore voyage experiences, which is an incredible legacy. Wicklow was one of the privileged Irish ports that the TS ROYALIST visited on several occasions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As I ...

The CEG COSMOS was built in 1983 as the ELISABETH for German shipowners by Husumer Schiffswerft in Husum, Germany.  She was one of a successful series of ships built there for different German owners, and was capable of handling cargoes of up to 1100 tons, many of which are still trading in spite of their age in European waters! She was renamed the CEG COSMOS in 2007, following her sale from the previous owners. The vessel became quite a regular trader to Wicklow Port from 2014 onwards, and was engaged in the importation of cargoes of round timber or logs from the western Scottish ports of Fishnish, Ardrishaig, Lochaline, Campbeltown and Holy Loch. These cargoes were hauled by road to Murray Timber Ltd. in Carlow, where they were processed into many different products. I liked the stylish design of the ship and the fact that she was always very well maintained - a great testament to her builders and previous owners! Originally, she flew the Gilbraltar flag at the stern, which chang...

The LONDONBROOK traded to Wicklow in the early 1980s on a liner general cargo route from Swedish ports - among them, Gothenburg to Dublin and Wicklow Ports. Because the service in Wicklow was very efficient, the trade continued and increased in the port right up to the early 2000s.The ship was operated by a very well known British company called Everard Shipping. Their ships had become quite a regular feature in Wicklow Port since the early 1970s when their vessels were regularly employed on the Casablanca to Wicklow run, transporting rock phosphate for the N.E.T. fertilizer factory in Arklow. The LONDONBROOK was built in 1975 by Tille Scheepsbouw, Koostertille in the Netherlands. She sported several names during her career. In 1977, she became the TOWERSTREAM until 1980, then the LONDONBROOK until 1986, the JOKER until 1993, and the NORMANNBAY until 1997. She was then sold to her final owners as the TRI BAY. She traded under this name until 31st August 2013 when she arrived off Aliaga...

The ARCA was built in 1976 at the Orskov Shipbuilding Yard in Frederikshavn, Denmark as the PACIFIC COAST, a name which she held until 1978.  The other names that the vessel sported over her trading career were: the PACIFIC TRADER until 1981, the TRIVIA until 1984, the ARCA until 1992, the PACIFIC COAST until 1993 and, finally, the PETROS until 1995. I think it was around 1987 that she visited the port of Wicklow to load out a cargo of stone aggregates from Morrissey's Ltd. quarry at Balleece, near Rathdrum, and bound for Barking Creek on the Thames estuary. I was very impressed with this stylish 3000 ton vessel and her unusual profile. She was equipped with her own cargo handling gear, which included a deck crane midships, which enabled her to trade worldwide. Such a vessel was a rare sight in the port at that time, as ship design had only evolved to the stage that there was no cargo handling gear, and ports, like our own, had their own shore-based equipment. In 1988, I took up th...

  Congratulations to Pat Davis who is to be the Grand Marshall for the 2026 St. Patrick's Day Parade for the Wicklow Town Municipal District. Pat is Wicklow Town's renowned resident maritime artist who has been painting his striking murals of visiting sea vessels on the wall of the old East Pier in Wicklow Port for 50 years. His artwork is greatly admired and respected locally, nationally and internationally. Born in Rathnew, his family moved to Wicklow Town while at an early age. Fascinated by ships from the age of 9, sketching became his childhood hobby, which he continued as he grew older - capturing visiting ships to the port in pencil sketches and ink drawings. In the summer of 1976, Pat got permission from the local Harbour Master to retouch a mural of the Greek ship, the ELIANA, which had been painted 5 years earlier in 1971 by a crew member of that vessel. Since then, he has been constantly adding new murals - now totalling over 80 - and maintaining existing ones in his...

The RON MOR is a very stylish motor yacht owned by Mr. David Buckley whose homeport is Greystones Harbour. She is, in fact, a Botnia Targa 30-footer built in Finland in 2008 by the long-established Finnish yard of Botnia Marin AB. Botnia Targa models are renowned worldwide for their robust all-weather and sea-keeping abilities, and were originally designed as fishing or workboats. Some of this class of vessel are also used as police boats! The builders' focus on function and reliability has earned Targa motor yachts the nickname: THE FOUR-WHEELED DRIVE OF THE SEAS! The builders also have the following motto: TARGA TAKE YOU TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD AND HOME SAFELY! I was attracted to this stylish motor yacht several years ago, and decided to paint her on the wall at the East Pier in March 2025, much to the delight of her proud owner, David, who visits the harbour quite regularly. It's quite amusing how he discovered that his RON MOR was featured in my gallery of murals on the pi...

From what I can gather, the fishing vessel, the BRIDGET CARMEL was built in 1997 as the MARSDIEP, a name she sported until 2005 when she was sold to her current owner, Johnny Keating from Kilmore Quay, County Wexford, which was to became her homeport.  She became well known nationally from, I think, 2010, as she was featured back then as part of RTE 1's Angelus which is broadcast each evening before the Six One News, and filmed in Wicklow Bay with Johnny at the wheel! To this day, a crucifix is still visible in one of her wheelhouse windows! She became a regular visitor to Wicklow Port from as far back as early 2010, right up to 2024, landing her catches at the East Pier. A beam trawler by design, she was equipped with a long arm or derrick on each side of the vessel, attached to a large fishing net on a beam. As she regularly fished in the mid-Irish Sea, Wicklow became her second 'home port', as it saved the vessel time and fuel steaming back down to Kilmore Quay. I loved ...

ASGARD II was the Irish national sail training vessel, designed as a brigantine, and proudly built in Arklow, Co.Wicklow by Jack Tyrrell.  A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully rigged foremast and at least two sails on the mainmast and, in this case, a gaff rigged sail behind the mast. Skilfully built, she was commissioned on the 7th March 1981. She was named after the original ASGARD, a two-masted yacht which smuggled weapons for the Irish Volunteers in 1914. Many years later, prior to the arrival of ASGARD II, I recall seeing her visiting Wicklow in the early 1970s as a sail training ship skippered by Captain Eric Healy. He eventually took command of the newer ship and served on her until his retirement. The vessel was owned by the Irish State and was operated by Coiste an Asgard (a founding member of Sail Training International). ASGARD II had a traditional carved wooden figurehead on her bow depicting the pirate queen, Granuaile, from ancient Irish folklore. ...

  Just over a hundred years ago, a record-setting achievement drew 10,000 onlookers to Dun Laoghaire seafront, County Dublin, on 20th June 1925 to raise a cheer as a small Irish yacht sailed into history. Commencing in Dun Laoghaire, the SAOIRSE (meaning ‘Freedom’ in Irish) had just become the first boat to carry the Tricolour around the world, sailing up the Irish Sea two years to the day since embarking on an epic circumnavigation of over 40,000 miles. The 42 foot (13 meters)-long ketch was also the first known small craft to sail the globe via the Three Great Capes, crossing oceans and surviving storms with neither an engine nor a radio on board. Limerick-man Conor O’Brien, owner, designer and skipper of the SAOIRSE, made headlines around the world. This was seen as our nation’s first international sporting achievement, and the voyage would herald a new era of ocean-going sailing aboard smaller craft. According to contemporary descriptions of the scenes in Dun Laoghaire, where b...

This colourful mural is dedicated to the Donaghadee lifeboat, R.N.L.B. CITY OF BELFAST. The prefix to her name, as is the case in all such lifeboat names, stands for 'Royal National LifeBoat'.  She was an Arun-Class lifeboat built in 1985, and this new class of all-weather rescue boats, capable of higher speeds, was designed to replace the existing slower lifeboat fleet back in the day. Donaghadee Lifeboat Station in County Down, Northern Ireland, is 19 miles east of Belfast, and has had a lifeboat stationed there on active service since 1910. The R.N.L.B. CITY OF BELFAST visited Wicklow Port in 1985 on her delivery voyage and stayed overnight, berthed at the South Quay in Wicklow Town. Her skipper on this occasion was the very experienced Willie Lennon who, along with the rest of the crew, was accompanied by his daughter, Ruth. She was remarkable in the sense that she joined the lifeboat service the previous year in 1984 and as a result, she became recognised as the first fema...

The lifeboat, R.N.L.B. J.W. ARCHER arrived at Wicklow Lifeboat Station in June 1956 and was commissioned into service on 14th July of that year. Throughout her delivery voyage to Wicklow Port, heavy weather was encountered and all onboard were extremely satisfied with the new lifeboat's performance. She became the first lifeboat there to rely solely on engine power for propulsion. Prior to that, previous lifeboats, even though they were fitted with an engine, still had to maintain the capacity to use sails, and indeed oars, should they be required. The new lifeboat was equipped with many enhancements, such as an RNLI commercially produced engine and covered spaces on board where the crew could shelter from the elements. Unfortunately, this came at a significant price: the lifeboat was no longer self-righting. So if the unthinkable happened and she capsized, she would remain upside down. The J.W. ARCHER was fitted with a grab rail on her underside, which would give the crew somethin...

The HUSKY In 2004, Simon Greenwood, a Wicklow Town man, founded Island Shipping, a multi-disciplinary marine service company located on the east coast of Ireland, with its vessels based in the port of Wicklow. In 2018, this company was to become part of a larger entity called Alpha Marine Services. In 2004, Simon managed to source and purchase his company's first suitable sea vessel which was for sale on the island of Sarawak in Malaysia. She was the sturdy multi-purpose tug, the BORCOS II, formerly owned by Borcos Shipping. This vessel was designed by Conan Wu and Associates, who were world-renowned for their ship designs. She was built in 1986 by Ironwoods Shipyard-Kuching, Malaysia.  Her early years were spent working in the gas industry, tasked with the connection of gas tankers in the China Seas, up to 120 miles offshore in the area around Brunei. As a result of this work, she was equipped with a spark arresters drenching system to enable her to achieve the highest maritime sa...

The R.N.L.B. ANNIE BLAKER Saturday, 30th September 1989 was a day I will never forget with the arrival of the new Tyne Class Lifeboat, R.N.L.B. ANNIE BLAKER as she made her way towards the entrance of Wicklow Harbour to be greeted by throngs of people scattered across the East Pier and the Black Castle area.  Two maroons were fired that were heard above the cheers as the vessel crossed the harbour entrance. She was escorted by the relief lifeboat and many fishing boats and yachts, all of which were decked out with colourful flags. Her crew, who had been away for the previous two weeks undergoing training with the new boat along the south coast of England ahead of the week-long delivery voyage back to Wicklow, became very emotional at the great welcome they received. Prior to this wonderful occasion, major works had just been successfully completed on the adaptation of the boathouse and the slipway to accommodate the station's first new high-speed, slipway-launched, offshore lifeboa...