October October October October, as Summer is over, and chestnuts falling and Autumn’s calling. And mother nature takes the blame, as red leaves covers all green, while the black bird spreads its wings, and loudly we hear her sing and the…

Captain Lawrence Busher, of the tug boat Wexford, was 57, when he and his crew took part in the rescue of the crew of the Mexico and the remaining crew of the Helen Blake. He used the steam power from the tug to pull the James Stevens, a 40ft…

Built in 1871 by Forrest of Lime House in London at a cost of £472 from a legacy by Mr J.M. Smyth of Brompton, London and named after his daughter. The lifeboat was 40ft long with 10ft 7in beam, pulling and sailing with 10 oars and two masts…

This poem looks back at what working life was like for one of the thousands of casual labourers who worked at the Dublin docks in the mid-twentieth century. The foreman, or Stevedore, allocated work to men daily. Those labourers would often be left…

Gary's wife used sea swimming as a way to get relief during a stressful personal time, as her mother went through Alzheimer's disease. The waves in the poem reflect the changing condition of Gary's mother-in-law, and her 'escapes to nowhere', when…

Gary Brown's poem is an elegy for all the people who took the boat out of Dublin and crossed the Irish Sea for various reasons. Some of them left their homes, never to return; others did, but in altered circumstances. This poem speaks of hope and…

The wives and families of dockers had to face deprivations that often went unnoticed or unreported. Because of the dangerous nature of work in and around the docklands areas, work accidents where very common. Almost on a daily basis, men were…

Haunted hallways, and tenement stairsAnd little old women on knees saying prayersWhile kids play skipping and dance all round, all take place in the heart of townAnd women with scrubbing-boards wash and toil, in old back yards beneath blue…

Gareth Huws sat down with Ports, Past and Present and shared the story of Margaret, Lady Stanley (neé Owen), the last heiress of the Owen family, an old local dynasty who by the mid-eighteenth century had lost much of their political influence and…

Gareth Huws sat down with Ports, Past and Present and discussed the significant changes to the town of Holyhead in the shape of its buildings and infrastructure, but also with the influx of new workers from the more rural areas of Anglesey and their…