£200,000 grant for Famine ship project

The Budget has brought welcome news for those building the Dunbrody Famine ship in New Ross, Co Wexford, as it emerged yesterday that the project is to receive a special grant of £200,000.

Earlier this week the John F. Kennedy Trust, which is overseeing the £4.5 million project, said the building of the ship had been scaled back as fundraising had not been as successful as anticipated.

The Minister of State for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Hugh Byrne, said the Dunbrody project "is one of the most important projects undertaken to commemorate the Famine and vital to the development of tourism in Co Wexford. It is wonderful that the Government has seen fit to support it."

He hoped this additional funding, on top of £3.5 million already raised, would enable the Dun brody, a replica of Famine ships which left Ireland in the 1840s, to be made seaworthy next year. It is due to travel to Boston on its maiden voyage.

The spokesman for the trust, Mr Sean Reidy, said the announcement had delighted all those working on the project and the Government's support was "a great boost". It meant that the hull of the ship would be completed soon, while fundraising would continue in an effort to complete its fit-out for sea.

Due to the fundraising shortfall in the US, and the considerable costs in making the vessel seaworthy, the JFK Trust had to lay off 14 of its 64 FAS trainees. It insisted, however, that it intended to complete the project. The ship's masts are to be stepped in within a few weeks.