Tom MacSweeney's Seascapes

On the September edition – a sailor spends ten years restoring a Folkboat, then sells it; the RNLI needs Volunteers and Ireland has 750,000 seabird visitors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this month's edition - Has the Government Got the Backbone to Fight for Irish Fishing? That is a tough question, but it is asked on this month’s SEASCAPES Podcast.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ship’s engineer who first arrived in Cork with the Dutch Smit Tak company for the development of the Kinsale Head Gas Field and stayed to run a marina, Wieste Buwalda, one of the most iconic figures in the marine sector, outlines the challenges of 40 years in the business as he retires, selling the marina to next door neighbour, the oldest yacht club in the world, the Royal Cork at Crosshaven. He discusses the difficulties of getting foreshore licences, bureaucracy in the Department of the Marine and why there should be more enjoyment in the sport of sailing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month’s podcast features two families, one from Cork which has invested in a multi-million Euro seafood centre and another whose members have given 140 years of service driving cranes in Waterford Port.The Good family traces its maritime history back to running a ferry boat in Cork Harbour. The O’Hanlon’s work high above ships in Waterford to keep exports and imports moving. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland's maritime sector must be made to benefit all the people of the nation, says the Chairman of the first Oireachtas Committee set up specifically for maritime affairs. Waterford Sinn Fein T.D., Conor McGuinness, tells the SEASCAPES Podcast that the Committee has a "wide remit" and he intends to use it fully.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“There’s a wonderful vibrancy around the marine sector at the moment…..” Those aren’t my words – they were spoken to me by Minister of State Timmy Dooley in his summary of the overall marine sphere In his first interview after two months in a dual maritime and fisheries post, which you can hear on this month’s SEASCAPES Podcast. Also, a discussion between the two sides of wind farm development and its effects on the fishing industry; €25m. spent by a Cork shipping company on a new survey vessel  and – is the Irish public ocean literate? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remembering a submarine explosion 105 years ago.Also on this edition – Fish Farming will be a vital supplier of food to future generations … Are whales changing which parts of Ireland they visitand the Waterford Estuary harbour which has changed, but not for the better….. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The “insane” treatment of Ireland’s fishermen.” “The way the Irish fishing industry is treated about Bluefin Tuna is insane,” says John Shine, a leading figure for 20 years in the marketing and selling of Irish fish, highlighting that Irish fishermen are prevented from catching Bluefin Tuna in Irish waters, while other nations are allowed to do so. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this edition of the maritime programme, SEASCAPES, presented by Tom MacSweeney,the Polish solo sailor who is Ireland’s only representative in what is being described as “a world first event, never attempted before …” explains why he intends to spend over a year sailing 26,000 miles alone around the world on a 19-foot plywood boat which he has built himself….. The Managing Director of a Valentia Island boatyard discusses how it has built the first Naval vessel in Ireland for forty years…. and a sailmaker explains why he built a maritime cannon …. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.