A Dutchman remembers the Port of Clare in 1958














A Dutchman remembers the Port of Clare in 1958
In May 2021, Willem Moojen of the Netherlands contacted Eric Shaw of the Clarecastle & Ballyea Heritage & Wildlife Group to say that he had memories of visiting the Port of Clare in 1958 on a ship named the Gerry-S. From the shipping registers of Clarecastle Quay, courtesy of John Power, Eric was able to find the dates of arrival of the Gerry-S, in July and September 1958 with cargoes of coal from Whitehaven for McInerney’s in Ennis. and this information was given to Willem.
Willem sent on photographs of the Gerry-S and a wonderful photograph of himself sitting on a horse on Clarecastle Quay in September 1958. He shared memories of his visits to Clarecastle with Eric. Eric encouraged Willem to write these memories down. Willem has now done this. He asked if a local newspaper would be interested in publishing his story, so Eric put him in touch with Jessica Quinn of the Clare Champion. The Clare Champion did an interview with Willem and that interview has now been published in the 6 August 2021 edition of the newspaper.
Willem was delighted and we mailed him several copies of the Champion for family members. He then expanded on the story and he has managed to get the Clarecastle story published in a monthly magazine for shipbuilding and shipping in the Low Countries, ‘De Blauwe Wimpel’ in January 2022. He has sent us a copy of the magazine. The article can be found below in its Dutch format, with an English translation..
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