Construction of the Dunbrody Famine ship has resumed, 18 months after a funding shortfall brought the project to a halt.
A German rigging company has been engaged to complete work on the vessel, which is to be floated as an exhibition ship in New Ross, Co Wexford, early next year. The remaining work includes stepping the final masts and attaching the rigging. The German company, Novcan, has been on site for the past fortnight.
Although a planned maiden voyage to Boston was cancelled, it is still hoped the ship will sail in the future.
About £3 million in State, EU and other funding has already been spent on construction of the vessel, a 176-foot wooden replica of the Dunbrody, which was built in Quebec for a New Ross-based shipping operator in the 1840s, and first sailed from the Wexford port in 1849.
Several consultancy studies on the viability of the project were carried out over the past 18 months before the Department of the Marine agreed in March to provide £1.9 million of the £2.4 million needed.
The John F. Kennedy Trust, which is overseeing the project, was also required to contribute a further £100,000, half of which has been raised to date. Wexford County Council, the American-Ireland Fund, New Ross UDC and Bord Failte are also contributing significant sums.
Mr Sean Reidy, the chief executive of the trust, said he was "absolutely delighted" the project was back on course after a frustrating and difficult period. The intention was to float the ship on the spring tide in February and have it officially opened to the public in May.
An on-shore facility would be built alongside the ship where visitors could view an audio-visual account of the Irish emigrant experience before entering the vessel. Costumed personnel would be on hand to help re-create the original atmosphere.
"We aim to bring the experience alive and tell people exactly what it was like for passengers at the time," Mr Reidy said. There would also be a high-tech "Spirit of Ireland" interpretative exhibition, including a computer database of Irish immigrants to the US from 1820 onwards.
