Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival

Wednesday 10 July 2013

After the highly successful inaugural Rathlin Sound Maritime Festival ended last month, some words of thanks from a little while back from Michael Cecil, Chair of the Rathlin Development & Community Association:

After a spectacular festival it is time to reflect and recuperate. I have a massive amount of people to thank for their support, time and energy, I will miss some out so I apologise in advance to those people. This event could not have been the success it was without true community spirit and cooperation , which we seem to have in abundance in the area. So a massive thank you to the following :

Rathlin Development and Community Association committee members
Patricia McCurdy, Noel McCurdy , Fergus McFaul , Ksenia Zywczuk , Marina McMullan , Tom McDonnell, Tania McFaul
Ballycastle Community Development Group members
Paul Kerrigan , Conor McCarry , Deirdre Larsen , Peter Molloy
Moyle Council staff
John Morton , Maggie Maguire , Caroline Carey , Harriet Hamilton, Aidan McPeake , Elaine Gaston
Moyle District Council Councillors
Sandra Hunter , Padraig McShane, Donal Cunningham , Cara McShane, Joan Baird
Rathlin Island Ferry
Mary O’Driscoll , Ciarian O’Driscoll , Siobhan Morton , Leanne Murdock , Stephen Gallagher.
Rathlin Island Ferry Crew
Richard Green , Jim McFaul , John McCurdy , Peter McMullan , Seamus McMullan , John McQuilkin , Julie Staines , Clyde Grobbler, Douglas Cecil, Fergus McFaul
Rathlin Island Fire and Rescue Service
Rathlin Island Coastguard
Rathlin District Nurses
PSNI Ballycastle
Gordon Munro
North coast cottages
Coolnagrock B & B
Soernoeg View Hostel
Rathlin Manor House
Peter McCurdy & Bertie Currie (campsite and marquee site)
McCuaigs Bar
Emmas Chip Ahoy
Harbour Café Rathlin
Rathlin Island Seafoods
Broughgammon farm
Root and Branch organic
Ballycastle Town Market traders
Rathlin Art exhibitors Alison McFaul , Terri Frecker
Streetwise entertainment
Coleraine Yacht club
Cushendall sailing and boating club
Bushmills distillery
Causeway Coast and glens heritage trust
Paul Quinn
Red bay lifeboat
Portrush Lifeboat
Sligo search and rescue
Prestwich search and rescue
Irish whale and dolphin group
Aoife Scott
Owen Scott
Rathlin Film Club
Ardglass Vikings
Causeway Coast Maritime Heritage group
Ian Wilson
Wes Forsythe
Jonathon Shackleton
Marcus Colchester
The Comhaltas group
Margaret McQuilkin
Bengi McFaul
Angela Green
Damien McFaul
Gusty McCurdy
Peter Campbell
Richard Lafferty
Richard Connor
Jaf
David Hannaway
DOE Marine division
Northern Ireland Environment agency
Grannie McCluskey
Minister Alex Atwood
Jonathon Shackleton and friends
Ulster Wildlife
The members , management and crew of Skerryvore
The members management and crew of Bagatelle
Brian Boyle
Brendan Burrows
Kieran McHugh
Kieran Dempsey
Paul Cochrane
Frances Black
Coleraine Fire and Rescue Service
McLaughlin Marquees
Red Bay powerboating
Red Bay Boats
Sean McFaul
Philip McFaul
Liz Weir
Neil McFaul
Donal MacPollin
Loughie McQuilkin
Commissioner of Irish Lights
RSPB Peter Harper & volunteers Johnnie, Helen, Diarmuid, Ashley, Pete, David, Ali
Berts Puffin Bus
Baillies Mills Accordion Band
Sign FX

Some special thanks to :

Tom McLaughlin and all at Red Bay boats for support assistance and transport.
Peter McLaughlin of McLaughlin Marquees for always being there to assist.
The Currach builders - John McFaul ,Ruairidh Morrison,Flip Robinson (all the rest Ive left out)
Carol the Hat for fetching our stage.
Rathlin Island Ferry for bending over backwards.
Cecil Houston for the Bar-b-que
Douglas Cecil for a fantastic Shipwreck exhibit
Our sponsors both in cash and in kind.
Clyde for piecing together the jigsaw of a stage.
Marina and Patricia for putting up with my shouts for help.
Gerry McFall and sons for always being at hand.
Ian Duncan , can fix anything
Donaghmore construction limited for logistical support.
Teresa McFaul, and all helping with the Blessing of the Boats – Revds Brian Daly, John Stanbridge, David Ferguson, Patrick Barton, Inderjit Bhogal, Ballycastle Church Action and the One Voice Choir
Vincent Kinnard for recording the events.
Tom McDonnell, Steven McAuley and Daniel McAfee for all the great photos
Stephen Ryan for all the admin support, printing and co-ordination.
Paul from BCDG for being there from the beginning, without him none of this would have happened.
Paul’s poor wife Marice for putting up with the two of us.

David Quinney Mee, my right hand man throughout, this poor man puts up with me on a daily basis; I land so much work on him and terrify him with my exploits and crazy notions (like booking Bagatelle without the funds to pay them).

A very special word of thanks to my wife Shauna and our kids Shannon, Orlagh and Ryan – All of whom have stood by me , supported me and been neglected while I was off doing all of this.

I’m sure I have left some important people off the above list and if so , sorry – The entire communities of Rathlin and Ballycastle were behind all of this and for that , Thank You all !.

Michael Cecil.