An Irishwoman's Diary

So he was not wearing a lifejacket or lifeline, and some say the sea will always claim its own. However, it is a reflection of this little island's value system that so little has been said about Eric Tabarly. In this year of 1798 commememorations, and a bare week after an Irish leg of the Tour de France, the discovery of the remains of one of that country's great heroes off these shores passed almost unnoticed.

Almost. There were the brief news reports, after a French fishing vessel reported the find in its gear off Milford Haven just over a week ago, prompting dozens of French journalists to look up Dunmore East - where the remains were landed - on the map. Tabarly inspired a generation after his win in the British transatlantic solo race in 1964; it was a measure of his stature that complete editions of several French periodicals were dedicated to him after his disappearance in mid-June.

Ironically, the century-old cutter on which he had been sailing when the accident occurred has very Irish roots - or ribs. Pen Duick was constructed in Cork harbour to a design by William Fife in 1898.

Glandore regatta

By an apt coincidence, even as Mr Tabarly's ashes were being brought back - by sea - to France late last week, several experts with intimate knowledge of his boat's history were gathered just a bit west of Cork harbour at the biennial classic boat summer school and regatta in Glandore.

Donal Lynch, the mainspring behind the Glandore event, is one of those rare sea spirits who is the exception in bucking our very insular value system. Since he started the school, he has done much to spread further appreciation of a forgotten maritime heritage. Last-minute hitches don't upset him. This year, the keynote speaker couldn't attend. And when the maritime historian, Dr John de Courcy Ireland, let slip that he would need to travel down and back to Cork in one day for the opening, Mr Lynch refused to let him leave Dublin. He roped in a traditional boat-owner with in interest in acting -one Jeremy Irons - to do the needful instead.

"Of course, Dr Ireland wanted to come," Donal observed. "But the man is in his eighties, and is always under pressure. I think it is time we started to treasure him a bit."

Atlantic Challenge

A bit further west again, another soulmate is preparing to defend his port's good honour. Dr Matt Murphy, general practitioner in Bantry, flew out to Denmark at the weekend with a young crew which is determined to avenge Denmark's victory over Ireland on the water two years ago.

The contest is known as the Atlantic Challenge. Inspired by the 20th-century European educationist Kurt Hahn - who encouraged German and former Allied youth to serve at sea together after the second World War - the Atlantic Challenge is an international competition, based on one boat design, and several sea skills.

The boat is the Bantry - the ten-oared, three-masted craft or "yole" which was left behind after the abortive French invasion of 1796. The original 18thcentury "barge", which was washed up with French lieutenant Proteau from the French frigate, Resolue on Bere island, is on display in the National Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

The design was adopted by the Atlantic Challenge Foundation as being a most suitable craft for testing sea skills - not just sailing and rowing, but also whipping and splicing, making sheepshanks and bowlines and monkey's fists. Manoeuvres such as "man overboard" are put to the test. The egalitarian rules insist that at least four of the minimum crew of 13 must be women.

"Ambassadors with sea-boots" is how the foundation describes the young participants, most of whom have been trained in Bantry by Dr Murphy, while Dublin's Ringsend also entered an "international" crew last time round. Since 1990, Ireland has been a very serious contender - beating off Canadians, north Americans, other Europeans, apart from the Danes. Since 1990, the trophy has tended to rotate between Ireland and Denmark.

Dr Murphy is confident of his crew's success in the four-day event, and has already done some research. This year there are 10 competing nations. "The Russians might have something in the bag. The Canadians are threatening, but I think it is only wind. Britain has a key player who is ill. And the French are too used to the good life. They are fine sailors but there are several rowing events, and cigarettes don't help!"

The event is being held in Roskilde, the ancient seaport where most of Denmark's kings are buried. It is also home to the famous Viking Roskilde ships, theme of a forthcoming exhibition in the National Museum later this year. What the Irish participants may not quite appreciate is how much we owe those Roskilde shipbuilders, according to yet another sea spirit with brine in his blood.

Des Branigan, who could give the Atlantic Challenge youngsters a serious sail for the money, is a mariner, diver, former trade union official and maritime historian who decided in his seventies to take to the books. Off he went to the Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies in St Andrew's over a year ago.

One of his projects involved a wide-ranging study of the culture, achievements and peregrinations of the Nordic nations. He concludes that the Vikings have had a very bad press, even in their own territory. Although Danish schoolchildren are taught that Vikings wore hornless helmets, this doesn't stop Copenhagen souvenir shops from selling horned figures to tourists every year.

Viking culture

As Branigan notes, there was already a substantial volume of trade between northern and southern Europe before the Viking "raids" began. Many of the Viking ships were large cargo vessels, and most voyages had no hostile intent. There is also ample evidence of a society with an advanced legal and social administrative system - such as in Iceland and Greenland, where thriving communities with no involvement in military ventures existed for centuries.

Certainly, there were early raids on isolated churches and monasteries. But these may have been "soft" targets, identified as retaliation for the enforcement of Christianity by Charlemagne. It was the Vikings' mastery of shipbuilding and their seafaring genius which underpinned their culture, reflected now in Nordic Europe.

Equating Viking violence with a nation's population is not only racist; it is an historical heresy, he says.