Bád Eddie: 'Race against time' to save Donegal shipwreck
For almost 50 years it has stood exposed to the very worst of what the Atlantic coast elements could muster.
By David WilsonBBC News NI Unsurprisingly, the decades of driving Irish coastal wind and rain have taken their toll. Now there are fears the wreck of Bád Eddie (Eddie's boat), one of County Donegal's most recognisable landmarks, won't survive another winter. Its deterioration has prompted a rescue plan, a salvage operation to preserve her for future generations. "Time is against us," Sonia Nic Giolla Easbuig, a member of the recently formed Bád Eddie committee, told BBC News NI. "We are at the point now where if something isn't done we stand to lose her altogether". Bád Eddie lies on Bunbeg's Magheraclogher beach, in Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore), an Irish speaking area of the Republic of Ireland. Originally built in France, the boat was bought by local fisherman Eddie Gillespie but washed ashore in the 1970s. The beach has been her home ever since. In the following years, it has become one of north west Ireland's most photographed landmarks and synonymous with the region - and inspiration for countless poets and painters, writers and musicians. In 1985 the wreck featured in the video for In a Lifetime, collaboration between traditional Irish group Clannad and U2 frontman Bono. As with many people in this part of the world, Eddie's been a constant in Sonia Nic Giolla Easbuig's life. As a child it was a playground for her and other local children. "We all played on her, we each had a cabin and we could swing from her into the sea". Now she is among the locals who have formed a committee determined to "ensure she has a fitting legacy, that she is enjoyed for years and generations to come". They plan to encase the wreck in stainless steel, acting as a protective barrier, but serving as an artwork in its own right. It will let future generations "peer through the stainless steel monument into the remains of the old boat". "If we achieve what we want to achieve and I have no doubt that we will, it will become Ireland's first permanent sea sculpture." Sonia knows only too well that time is of the essence. When in recent months the bow fell from the wreck, she and her neighbours carried out their own DIY repairs on the boat, hammering steel bars and bolts into the framework. "It's held its own over the decades, but there's so much damage to her now. If she weakens further the ribs will go - once that happens it will be her demise," she said. The rescue plan's first phase will see a team from Queen's University Belfast capture a 3D scan of the wreck. It's led by Colm Higgins, head of Northern Ireland Technology Central at Queens. They'll digitally capture Bád Eddie's exact dimensions, providing a record of its current condition. That in turn can be used to monitor or protect it from future erosion - and determine how best to proceed with the preservation of the wreck. "It'll inform us in the first instance how to protect her this winter," Sonia said. In the short term that will preserve the boat's structural integrity and give the committee the time needed to progress with the long-term solution. "The scans will give us a full-size image of the actual boat, all of her nuts and planks and bolts, and from that we can plan how best to build further," Sonia added. The project could take some time and is being paid for in the first instance with a fundraising campaign - launched earlier this summer with a concert at the wreck and featuring Clannad's Moya Brennan and Altan's Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. While previous attempts to rescue the wreck stalled, this time there is the will to see the project through, Sonia said. This is an "iconic site" she said, one that "gives so much joy to so many". "It's important that we save the boat now because it represents the area - an area hit hard in the last decades by recession and emigration. "There's a fear in the area that if the boat leaves, the attraction goes with it."