PADDY O’HALLORAN, who has died at the age of 91, was one of the last surviving west coast island ferry skippers to have navigated by sail.
The heritage museum on his native Inishbofin has put together a Facebook page of photographs and tributes to his memory, marking the impact of his loss.
O’Halloran was born on Inishbofin in August 1920, the sixth of nine children. His mother, Catherine O’Malley, from Inishturk, married Michael “The Squire” O’Halloran from Inishark and the couple settled on the larger island across the water.
At 12 he began working with his father at sea – fishing, delivering cargo including cattle, sheep and provisions, and undertaking passenger ferry runs and responding to medical emergencies. The family fished in currachs and pucáns, and owned larger craft including the Leenane Head, which O'Halloran snr bought in 1940. This vessel was a 45-foot "Zulu" herring drifter – a design built to order by the Congested Districts Board, established in 1891 to alleviate poverty on the west coast. It became Inishbofin's link with the mainland for many years.
In 1952 O'Halloran was assigned the post run, which he maintained until 2001 in a series of craft including the Topaz.
A postal trip on the Topazto the neighbouring island of Inishturk in December 1959 with crewmen Christy Day, John Cunnane and John Concannon was one he later said he "would never forget".
"When we got there, we anchored out and went ashore by currach," he told the Inishbofin Enquirerin 1991. "We carried 10 bags of mail to the post office and we were just sitting into the table having a meal when we heard a terrible noise. Somebody said that it was the noise of an aeroplane and somebody else thought it was thunder, but none of the two sounds were correct as we soon realised a hurricane was blowing. We looked at each other and got up from the table."
Abandoning attempts to reach shelter in Killary harbour, and then Letterfrack, they headed for Cleggan. “It was very difficult work. At one stage, I asked John Cunnane what he thought of the day. ‘It’s a very bad one,’ he said, something John never said before . . .” It was 3am the next day when they got home. “You are never a sailor until you know that the sea is your master,” he added.
He could read the sea and sky, but was sceptical of the “pisreogs” or superstitions which used to stop islanders fishing, such as meeting a red-haired woman on the way to the quay. “I remember meeting a red-haired woman and me going fishing,” he said. “We were only two hours out when we got a load . . . so I didn’t believe in it after that.”
Latterly, his sons Brendan and Paddy Joe worked with him. No one came to the island without meeting him, and he was photographed with everyone from film maker John Huston to former taoiseach Charles Haughey.
He was profiled in the new television series on community and public health nursing entitled The Nursewhich is currently being broadcast on RTÉ television.
Predeceased by his wife Margaret, he is survived by twin sisters Lily and Jane, and children Brendan, Carmel, Betty, Albert, Marian and Paddy Joe. A seventh child, Mary, died at birth.
Paddy O’Halloran: born August 2nd, 1920; died January 26th, 2012