RNLI’s 200-year celebrations makes their way to Mayo

Achill Island RNLI has participated in the the RNLI’s ‘Connecting our Communities’ relay-style event.

The relay is one of the ways in which the charity is marking its two hundredth anniversary.

The event sees a scroll, bearing the RNLI pledge, being passed through RNLI communities, lifeboat stations, shops, lifeguard units and fundraising branches, around Ireland and the UK being signed by representatives at each location on its route.  

Yesterday, three representatives from Achill Island RNLI added their signatures to the precious scroll when it visited the Island. 

 The pledge reads: ‘Whoever we are, wherever we are from, we are one crew, ready to save lives. We’re powered by passion, talent and kindness, like generations of selfless lifesavers before us. 

‘This is our watch, we lead the way, valuing each other, trusting each other, depending on one another, volunteering to face the storm together. Knowing that, with courage, nothing is impossible. That is what has always driven us to save everyone we can. It's what makes every one of us a lifesaver.’

Beneath the pledge, printed in seven languages (English, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Manx, and Cornish), it stated: ‘Signed in 2024 by representatives of the RNLI’s lifesaving communities, on behalf of all who strive to save everyone.’

Speaking after the Mayo visit of the scroll, Achill Island RNLI Volunteer Deputy Launch Authority, Maria Kilbane, said the team was ‘privileged’ to participate in the two-hundredth anniversary scroll relay.  

“The scroll has been made bespoke by RNLI craftspeople using materials of significance to the charity.  The wooden handle has been made by a carpenter from the RNLI’s All-weather Lifeboat Centre in Poole (where the charity builds and maintains its all-weather lifeboats), using wood from an old flagpole from Ramsey lifeboat station on the Isle of Man,” she explained.

“We are honoured to have facilitated a visit of the scroll to Achill Island and to have representatives from our station add their signatures to it,” concluded Ms Kilbane.

 The five-metre-long scroll, now about halfway through its seven-month relay, began its journey in March at a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey to mark the charity’s official 200-year anniversary.

At the commencement, the scroll was signed by RNLI President, HRH The Duke of Kent, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dean of Westminster, the RNLI’s Chair and the RNLI’s Chief Executive.  

The final signature to be added will be that of King Charles III, and the scroll will be displayed in the RNLI College in Poole, where the charity’s lifeboat crews and lifeguards are trained.

 For further information about the anniversary events, visit the RNLI website.