Sailing By features a specially chosen selection of material broadcast on Seascapes, RTÉ Radio 1’s dedicated maritime programme. Originally developed and presented by Tom MacSweeney, who retired in 2009, the helm has passed on to Marcus Connaughton who now presents and produces the weekly programme. Essays include:
Sailor and explorer Paddy Barry’s circumnavigation of the island of Ireland
W.M. Nixon on Ireland’s sailing tradition
Pete Hogan on building his own boat and sailing it down the coast of California, through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic to Ireland
Historian Dr Michael Martin on Ireland’s emigrant and convict ship trail
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, by Dick Robinson
Fishing and Harvesting the Sea with Jason Whooley, former Chief Executive of Bord Iascaigh Mhara
Gerald Butler, one of Ireland’s last lightkeepers, on the tragic 1979 Fastnet yacht race
Trade unionist Francis Devine on Irish seafarers and trade union organisation
Former Flag Officer of the Naval Service, Commodore John Kavanagh, on Ireland’s Naval and Merchant Marine Service
The sinking of the Lusitania, by Patrick O’Sullivan
Hugh Oram on the legendary John de Courcy Ireland
And much more