In one of his last actions as Minister for Defence before succeeding Mr Ray Burke at Foreign Affairs, Mr David Andrews decided that the historic gun-running vessel Asgard should be conserved in the National Museum at Collins Barracks. He rejected the option - promoted energetically by the members of the Asgard Restoration Project - of restoring the vessel and returning it to sea. "My view is that restoration of the vessel could produce a yacht which would be a replica, rather than an authentic preservation, of this historically valuable artefact," Mr Andrews said. His decision has been described by one Asgard enthusiast as "a slap in the face".
The story of the Asgard is, of course, inseparable from that of its first owner, the quixotic and ultimately tragic figure of Erskine Childers, for whom the boat was built as a wedding present in 1904. Public-school educated, from a unionist background, author of the classic thriller The Riddle of the Sands, Childers became an ardent Irish nationalist and, in 1914, skippered the boat to land 90 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition at Howth for use by the Irish volunteers. Following Childers's execution by his former comrades in 1922, the Asgard was sold by his widow, and passed through a number of cross-channel owners before being bought by the Irish government in 1961, for use as the State's first sail training vessel. After being decommissioned in the 1974, it lay abandoned for a time before being moved to its present location in the yard of Kilmainham Jail.
The Asgard clearly deserves a better fate. So, conservation or restoration? It is a familiar dilemma; and in this case there are strong arguments on both sides. Certainly, Collins Barracks would be a secure resting-place for the Asgard; and it could be displayed effectively there, doubtless with the usual multi-media aids to place it in historical context. But members of the Asgard Restoration Project argue that such a boat should be a "living artefact", seen on water. They point out that its significance goes beyond the Childers associations - it was one of the last creations of the renowned Norwegian boat designer, Colin Archer, and is of great interest to sailing enthusiasts throughout the world. And they argue that, as a historic flagship, the Asgard could greatly help to raise awareness of Ireland's shamefully neglected maritime heritage.
In response to Mr Andrews's assertion that restoration could produce "a replica, rather than an authentic preservation", they point out that the yacht was in any case extensively modified in the 1960s, so that "authenticity" will require some restoration. They are sure to renew their appeals to the new Minister of Defence, Mr Smith - and they deserve a full hearing, for it is hard to banish the suspicion that the Collins Barracks option appeals to the Government not least on grounds of cost and convenience. Mr Smith should also note the suggestion aired in a recent letter to this newspaper by the maritime writer Mr Winkie Nixon of Howth. He proposes that the Asgard should be patiently restored to the original design for museum display - and that a replica should be built which could be taken to sea "without her crew being additionally saddled with the original's major historical significance." It is, perhaps, the kind of proposal that might have appealed to a certain recent Taoiseach with a fondness for the grand gesture. But it is, nonetheless, worthy of serious study.