Weathering stormy waters

In his presidential inauguration speech in 1961, John F. Kennedy urged Americans: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". For Mr Sean Reidy, chief executive of the John F. Kennedy Trust, this famous quotation could be altered slightly to say: "Ask not what your town can do for you, ask what you can do for your town."

For the past 10 years he has been at the helm of a £4.9 million (€6.2 million) project that aims to attract 50,000 tourists every year to the Co Wexford town of New Ross.

Looking around Mr Reidy's office at the former Ross company shipyard, it is clear he has some connection to the Kennedys, fund-raising and tall ships.

Photographs of politicians, local business people and various Kennedys cover the walls, alongside a number of drawings and a model replica of a tall ship. The masts of a tall ship are visible from his office. The flagship project for the trust, which was founded in 1998 by a group of local business people and was the brainchild of RTE broadcaster Michael Ryan, has been the building of a replica famine ship, the Dunbrody, which will be launched on Sunday.

Ten years, millions of pounds and many headaches later, Mr Reidy, who has been chief executive since 1991, will be proud to see the project finished. Getting a 440-tonne ship from a dry dock to the River Barrow will be a new experience.

A former Customs and Excise officer, Mr Reidy had a desire to get more directly involved with the public and have a more hands-on approach. President Kennedy was someone he admired and having a group called the John F. Kennedy Trust working to try and improve things in the town appealed to him.

Mr Reidy applied for a job as project manager and was given a brief to develop a heritage centre in New Ross. His initial proposal was to restore a derelict quayside grain store to house a heritage centre. He envisioned there would be an emigrant ship adjoining it, representing the history of the port and the Kennedy connection with the town.

The New Ross area still has strong Kennedy links - some descendants still live on the Kennedy homestead a few miles outside the town. "The exhibition would focus on the positive aspects of the emigration story, of people leaving and achieving, and of Kennedy coming back in 1963, epitomising the success story of the Irish abroad."

Mr Reidy saw the project as a means to do something spectacular for New Ross on a worldwide scale. It represented a tremendous marketing opportunity and he believed the ship moored at the quay would make a strong visual statement to get tourists to stop instead of just passing through the town.

The timing was fortunate; EU funding was available, the LEADER development programme was set up and New Ross had been identified as one of eight unemployment blackspot areas. "That meant that there was funding available that wouldn't otherwise have been available to enable a voluntary group like the trust to get seed funding."

The concept of the trust, he says, was local business people, local authority officials and elected representatives working side by side. EU funding, the Kennedy connection and working with local authorities provided the key elements for success.

Initially, Wexford County Council, which saw its potential, committed £100,000 to the project. A visit to the US to explain the project ensured it received Senator Ted Kennedy's seal of approval, giving the project credibility. Another £100,000 of EU funding was made available over a few years and $100,000 was donated by the America-Ireland Fund. Following two studies and discussions with Bord Failte, it was decided the trust should focus exclusively on the ship, which would become the exhibition. From 1994 to 1995, funding was scarce and the trust concentrated on a second project that had been working side-by-side with the ship - the computerisation of all the passenger lists of emigration from Ireland and Britain to the US from the 1840s to the 1900s. The first CD Rom was published two years ago and has earned £100,000;a second one will be released this month in the US and there is a third in the pipeline.

Mr Reidy believes the relationship between FAS and the trust has been crucial. FAS part-funded his appointment and provided a training programme, initially for 12 people. In 1997, there were 70 people working on the overall project.

In 1996, £1.6 million had been approved by Bord Failte and fund-raising in the corporate sector made it a £2.5 million project. At that stage, it was thought this funding would cover everything, but the complexity of building a sailing ship was underestimated, admits Mr Reidy.

Over the past three years, the visitor centre has earned £350,000 and expects to earn £250,000 per annum, but that doesn't mean it has all been plain sailing.

In 1998, just months away from completion, ambitious fund-raising plans in the US collapsed and the project ran out of money. It had overstretched itself and was £700,000 in debt. "There were very dark days. We just had to let go the workforce in its entirety. We had 70 people. We literally went from 70 down to 16 or 20, which was the core group, with maintenance." Some people stayed, working on basic FAS wages to maintain the ship. The visitor centre was also kept open.

Mr Reidy says 1999 was all about attempting to restructure. Another study was commissioned to determine the fate of the project. "The initial shock was hard to deal with. I don't think anything prepares you for . . . when you hit a wall and there doesn't seem to be light. At the end of 1998 it looked bleak.

"One thing that galvanised everyone on the project was that the visitors kept coming. The public support for the project was maintained and the public's perception was that the project was unstoppable; it had to be finished. When you were working on the project that was far from the truth."

Government intervention was required and, with the cost of completion pinned down definitively, the trust received a £1.925 million funding package 12 months ago out of a total package of £2.45 million. The cost to completion includes settlement with creditors, completion of the ship and onshore building, and the provision of permanent berthage. The creditors helped by accepting 70 per cent payment. German company Navcon was brought in to finish the work on the ship and is employing some of the Irish workers.

In a few months, Mr Reidy will be moving office to a new building on the quay in New Ross, where the Dunbrody will be moored and will be open to visitors from May 1st. It will employ eight to 12 people.

His job does not end with the completion of the Dunbrody; he is optimistic about the commercial viability of the project. "What has been exciting for me is that the trust is much more than simply a heritage centre. It's about acting as a catalyst for other things to happen and, maybe in the future, being involved in other things around the project."