Ireland's rich maritime heritage was remembered yesterday when the Irish-born inventor of the modern submarine, John Philip Holland, was commemorated at a special ceremony at the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) at Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.
Holland was a former Christian Brother and apprentice teacher at the North Monastery school in Cork between 1858 and 1861. Yesterday North Monastery teacher Tony Duggan presented copies of some of Holland's papers to the NMCI.
Holland, who was born in Liscannor, Co Clare in 1841, emigrated to the US after leaving the Christian Brothers in 1873. He spent the next 40 years developing his submarine prototypes culminating in the first submarine commissioned by the US Navy, the Holland VI.
Mr Duggan was instrumental last year in organising the twinning of Liscannor with Paterson City, New Jersey where he made contact with Bruce Balistrieri, curator of the Paterson Museum where Holland's first two submarines, Holland I and the Fenian Ram, are housed.
"Following on those contacts, Bruce Balistrieri offered me a fiche of around 5,000 documents relating to John Philip Holland including photographs of his early submarines, hundreds of drawings as well as personal letters," said Mr Duggan.
"John Philip Holland actually began his experiments with models in the ornamental pond in the North Mon and on the River Lee while his father, John, Holland snr was born in Bantry in west Cork and later moved to Ballymartle nearer Cork city," said Mr Duggan.
"His father later joined the British Coastguard Service and his first posting was to Ringabella near Minane Bridge in Co Cork, so Holland has a huge Cork connection and certainly with these documents coming to Ringaskiddy, it's fair to say Holland's spirit is coming home."
Mr Duggan said it was particularly appropriate to donate the documents to the NMCI as it is a constituent college of the Cork Institute of Technology and Mr Holland's mentor at the North Monastery was Brother James Dominic Burke, a pioneer of vocational education in Ireland.