It came close to being sunk financially before it left dry dock, but the Dunbrody replica Famine ship is almost built and will soon be seen on the quays of New Ross, Co Wexford.
The boatyard where construction of the vessel began nearly four years ago will be open to the public for the last time this Sunday as final preparations are made for the ship's launch a week later.
Among the 2,000 guests at the event on February 11th will be the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the former US Ambassador to Ireland, Ms Jean Kennedy-Smith. The champagne bottle is to be smashed at 7 a.m. and thousands of people are expected to line the quays at New Ross from 10 a.m. to welcome the ship.
The vessel, which cost nearly £4 million to build, will remain on the quay and house a permanent exhibition of graphic aids, audio-visual presentations and interactive computers detailing the story of Irish emigration.
However, Mr Sean Reidy, chief executive of the John F. Kennedy Trust, which oversaw the project, is confident that the Dunbrody will eventually become a full seagoing vessel. This was the intention until financial difficulties put the entire project in doubt in 1998.
By that stage Bord Failte had pumped £1.6 million into the venture, and it took a further £1.9 million from the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources to ensure its completion. Local agencies, including Wexford County Council, also provided significant funding and there were major contributions from the America-Ireland Fund and corporate sponsors in Ireland.
It would cost between £600,000 and £700,000 more to make the ship capable of sailing, said Mr Reidy, but for now he is relieved the project has got this far.
The Dunbrody is a 176-foot wooden replica of a 19th-century ship of the same name built in Quebec for a New Ross based shipping operator in the 1840s. It first sailed from the Co Wexford port in 1849.
Its 21st century reincarnation will be a spectacular addition to New Ross and is expected to attract between 60,000 and 70,000 visitors each year. More than 100,000 have viewed it during construction.
Designed by the naval architect Mr Colin Maudie, the ship was built, with the support of FAS, by a local workforce of trainees and long-term unemployed people, under the tutelage of a team of experienced shipwrights headed by Mr Michael Kennedy. Specialist tall ship riggers, Navcon from Germany, completed her fitting out.