Now blogging at full steam

Hello all,

You are very welcome to the first post of my very first blog. My name is Conor Keenan and just this Monday July 19th, I took up a new post as Maritime Officer in the town of Kilkeel in County Down, Northern Ireland. For the next twelve months I will be based here at the Nautilus Centre which overlooks Kilkeel harbour. My mission, (which I have already chosen to accept), is to produce an exhibition for the Maritime Visitor Centre here, which will be called ‘Families at sea’.



The exhibition will cover the important family element to the fishing industry in Kilkeel, which has seen many generations of sons follow their fathers and grandfather into the boats, and off to sea. The goal is to make contact with at least Twenty families so their stories, documents, tales(fishy or otherwise) and artefacts can be put on display.

I am slightly daunted but very much looking forward to the project and am keen to get out and talk to the locals to discover more about this amazing occupation. Brutal, unforgiving, but always compelling, Fishing is not just about the men that go out on the boats. So I will be interested to find out how the families of these men coped without the head of the household for so much time, and how the rhythm of a fishing family would differ from that of a family with ‘shore jobs’.



I will be popping up with regular updates on the progress of the projects, as well as my own little maritime musings and discoveries. I hope to add some photos as well to keep anyone who is interested in the project up to date and to give a different perspective on how our exhibition will come together.



See you soon



Conor