Join us in Wexford Library for the launch of Irish Merchant Ships and Shipowners by Terry Conlan. This newly published book gives an outline of Powered Ships from the beginning of Steam Navigation for the Irish Mercantile Marine, 1815 - 2015. in this volume the author seeks to give an outline of Irish ship owning, and the operation of both steam and motorships over the years. This book is dedicated to the hardworking seafarers who served on Irish ships both in peace and in wartime, remembering those of other nations who traded to and from our shores.

The book will be launched by Captain Sean Boyce and the author Terry Conlan will give a brief talk on the many aspects covered in the book. 

Author Terry Conlan was born in Dublin, where he developed an interest in ships by observing the busy city quays reaching from Butt Bridge by the entrance to Tara Street Station down along the River Liffey taking in the then busy Grand Canal Dock. In 1954 he made his first acquaintance with the Maritime Institute of Ireland and, for some years contributed to its journal and was a Council Member. He assembled the facts for “Ships of Ireland 1980” and “Ships of Ireland 1984” published by Mil. He contributed articles to business and other publications for twenty or thirty years. He was associated with Stella Maris and the Catholic Seafarers Club activities over many years and found his horizons widened by learning from seafarers of many different lands. A graduate of the National University of Ireland (UCD) he became a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (London) by examination. Now retired, he has travelled extensively over the years as far South as Cape Horn and as far North as Helsinki, as well as in the Americas and Asia. He has an enduring interest in history especially maritime history, the Second World War, modern Irish History and the history of English Recusancy. He keeps up to date in his recording of Irish shipping and in seeking to complete his photographic collection of old Irish ships which, occasionally, yields surprising results.