Irish Cruising Club Annual Dinner Weekend

Me hobnobbing with friend and Artic explorer Jarlath Cunnane
and CCA Commodore Chris Otorowski

We attended our first major ICC event post-Covid, and I must say it felt rather normal. With about 250 people in attendance whom we hadn't seen in several years, there was a lot of hugging and kissing. I truly hope we don;t come down with anything, but no one was particularly reserved and there were no masks worn, even by the ancient contingent. 

Commodore David Beattie and Aoife had things well organised and the Radisson Blu in Sligo did a great job accommodating all of us. It was nice that our drive was only about 2 hours this year. Next year, it will be in Cork, 5+ hours distant. 

As always, it starts out with an informal New Members reception on the Friday night, when the whiskey barrel is brought out for members to imbibe free of charge (dangerous!). The Mayo contingent was out in force and we even inducted a new member from Westport we hadn't met before.

The next day, we had booked a visit to Lissadel House which was open exclusively to ICC members until their usual summer opening for June through August. The owners,  Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy were in residence and greeting us warmly. Lissadell House in Ballinfull, overlooking Sligo Bay, upon which some 98 ICC members descended on Saturday, was the home of the Gore Booth family including the children, Constance, Countess Markievicz, her sister Eva and their brother Josslyn. 

Constance was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and was the first woman to be elected to the Westminster Parliament and later to the first Dail Eireann. She became Minister of Labour. W. B. Yeats was a friend of the Gore Booth sisters and stayed at Lissadell in 1893 and 1894. 

Sir Henry Gore Booth sailed his own yacht to the Arctic and was involved in the rescue of a fellow Arctic explorer, Benjamin Leigh Smith, in 1882. Sir Henry was a prolific writer on a variety of topics including Arctic exploration, yachting, whaling, polar bear hunting and shark fishing. He also hunted big game in Africa. Much of his Arctic memorabilia and his trophy animals are now on display in The Billiard Room and elsewhere in Lissadell House. 

We were served a wonderful lunch in the Coach House which is now a visitor's centre and function room. It was a lovely experience.

Then came the big dinner. It's a funny story. As Alex was packing the morning of our departure, he called down the stairs, "Daria, my trousers don't fit." They were about 3 inches too small. No saving. I went online and found a men's shop in Castlebar (on the way) and a formal rental shop in Sligo, our destination, as backup. We walked in and a nice man came forward to assist. He asked what size? We guessed wrong. It had been years since Alex wore his tuxedo last and it was tight then. 

To cut the story short, trousers, jacket, belt, and shirt later, we were on our way to Sligo ahead of schedule. Does Daria take care of Alex?  You bet! We are going back after a while for more wardrobe replenishment. They don't have double-breasted blazers at the moment as they are totally out of style (I asked), but they had plenty of other nice stuff. I had already bought Alex a nice selection of black stuff for his aunt's funeral in Germany last week. 

The dinner went down very well, with Commodorial speeches and the awarding of the Fastnet trophy to a good friend and amazing Irishman Winkie Nixon. He gave a very entertaining speech, as to be expected. Somehow, whereas I often dread events such as these, I always love the ICC weekends. They get us out to see parts of the country we may not venture to otherwise, and we forge friendships that would have passed us by otherwise. Here's to a bit of land cruising off-season.