Plans afoot for transatlantic boat race

Former Clare Island manager looks to organise transatlantic boat race


Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie

THE former Manager of Clare Island is hoping to organise a transatlantic boat race from Newfoundland to Valentia Island in Kerry to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable.
Kerry native, Donal O’Shea who was the former Manager of Clare Island Development Company was commissioned by the Valentia Island Development Association to prepare a feasibility study for the island.
Since retiring as the Manager of the Clare Island Development Company, Mr O’Shea set up his own consultancy company, MANCO which is aimed at assisting community groups and companies.
The Valentia Island Feasibility Study was published in the Autumn and one of the projects Mr O’Shea is hoping to explore is the prospect of a transatlantic boatrace in 2016. The first commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable from Newfoundland landed in Valentia Island in 1866 and operated for 100 years.
“I was asked to become the Manager of Valentia Island but I said no because I did not want to move anymore but I said I’d do something for them,” he told The Mayo News. “I found Valentia to be more industrialised than other islands and hundreds were employed in the slate quarry and the cable station. They also had trading links with Spain.
“There is a huge history of entreprise which other islands don’t have and in a lot of ways were ahead of their time. The transatlantic cable was the first commercial cable between America and Europe. One of the projects I would be looking at to commemorate this is a transatlantic boatrace from Newfoundland to Valentia and hope to get people involved to help sponsor and organise it,” he said.
As well as carrying out the feasibility study for Valentia, Donal also helps communities and companies in acquiring grants from groups such as Leader, the County Enterprise Board and Micro Finance Ireland.  Despite the state of the economy, Donal said he is amazed by the amount of people who are looking to set up companies or expand their companies who have contacted him to get advice.