A memorial service for the late maritime historian Dr John de Courcy Ireland is due to be held in Dublin early next month.
Dr de Courcy Ireland, who died at the age of 94 on April 4th last, donated his body to the Royal College of Surgeons for medical research. Initial plans by his family to hold a service at the Unitarian church in Dublin were postponed as it was believed that a larger venue would be required.
The service is now planned for the Church of Ireland parish church in Monkstown at noon on Saturday, June 3rd. Among the many organisations to be represented will be the Royal National Lifeboat Institution of Ireland and the Maritime Institute of Ireland.
"A man of great principle and a committed socialist all his life," was how Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described Dr de Courcy Ireland on his death. The pacifist, political activist, teacher and author was a founder member of the Irish branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and a president of the Ireland-China Society.
He was decorated by a number of governments and was also one of the first non-French nationals to be appointed a member of the prestigious Academie de la Marine in Paris.
He is survived by his three children, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.