Qualla: Ardmore Lifeboat Station

Ardmore Lifeboat Station: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul O'Farrell, CC BY-SA 2.0. Boxing Day 1860. A south-east gale was hammering the Waterford coast. The brigantine Diana of Frederikshavn, on passage from Bordeaux to Belfast with a cargo of wheat and brandy, struck a reef in Ardmore Bay and began to break up. The Ardmore lifeboat launched into the storm with one vacant seat - filled at the last moment by a local gentleman named John S. Roderick. The first attempts to get close to the wreck failed. Eventually, with two lines attached, the lifeboat was hauled in close enough that seven of the eight crew managed to scramble aboard. The eighth man jumped into the sea with a makeshift raft as the wreck was driven closer inshore and was pulled to safety. The lifeboat itself was badly damaged. Four RNLI Silver Medals were awarded for the service, including one to Roderick - a passenger who, on the day, had decided not to be one.

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Image: Paul O'Farrell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ardmore Lifeboat Station: Why a Station Here

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ardmore Lifeboat Station opened in 1858, just thirty-four years after the founding of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The October 1858 edition of the RNLI journal The Lifeboat announced the establishment of a station at Ardmore, in County Waterford, Ireland. A 28-foo...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ardmore Lifeboat Station: Diana's Crew

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul O'Farrell, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Diana service is the rescue the station is best remembered for. The award of four Silver Medals at a single incident was unusual; most services produced none. The detail that John S. Roderick - described in the records as a local gentleman - voluntarily filled the empty seat ...

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Image: Paul O'Farrell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ardmore Lifeboat Station: Granite and the Hooper

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul O'Farrell, CC BY-SA 2.0. A new boathouse was commissioned in 1877 after a visit by the Inspector of Lifeboats. The replacement was a fine granite building constructed at a cost of £255 - a serious sum for a small fishing village. In September 1880 Ardmore received its third and final lifeboat, funded by ...

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Image: Paul O'Farrell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ardmore Lifeboat Station: Closed by Committee

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul O'Farrell, CC BY-SA 2.0. On Thursday, 14 February 1895, the RNLI committee of management in London read a report following a visit to Ardmore by the deputy Chief Inspector of Lifeboats. The decision that followed was administrative and brief: Ardmore Lifeboat Station should be closed. The reasons are not...

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Image: Paul O'Farrell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ardmore Lifeboat Station: The Building, the Memory

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul O'Farrell, CC BY-SA 2.0. Walking the Ardmore cliff path today you pass the old coastguard lookouts, the wreck of the Samson on Ram Head, St Declan's Cell and Holy Well. The lifeboat station building at the junction of Main Street and Cois Trá is still there, repurposed but identifiable - the granite is h...

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Image: Paul O'Farrell | CC BY-SA 2.0