About Us

The A.K. Ilen Company, a charitable trust, has been centrally involved in researching, publishing and promoting wooden boats in Ireland for more than ten years. Its publications include The Galway Hookers (Richard J. Scott, 2004), Ilen, An Irish Maritime Restoration Project (W.M Nixon & Gary MacMahon) and The Gandelow, A Shannon Estuary Fishing Boat (Jim McInerney, 2005). AK Ilen has also played a central role in the production and design of the authoritative study Traditional Boats of Ireland (ed. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, Collins Press 2008) which was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards (2009).

A focal point of the company's maritime activities in the past decade has been the restoration of the 56-foot ketch Ilen. Designed by pioneering voyager Conor O'Brien and launched in 1926, the Ilen spent the majority of her working life in the Falkland Islands to which it was sailed by O'Brien in the company of two others from west Cork in that year. Repatriated in 1998 by AK Ilen, the Ilen is now the largest Irish-built wooden trading vessel in existence. She is also the most visible surviving tangible link with the renowned Baltimore Fishery School, which was established in 1887 and from whose boatyard the Ilen emerged, under the guidance of master shipwright Tom Moynihan. And while the Fishery School has since closed, the venerable tradition of wooden boat building has been maintained in Baltimore by Hegarty's Boatyard at Oldcourt where the Ilen is currently undergoing restoration. Indeed, Hegarty's senior shipwright in the project, Fachtna O'Sullivan, is a relative of one of Ilen's original builders.

The Ilen restoration, through monthly workshops, has been enthusiastically embraced, by the wider wooden boat fraternity in Ireland. Her carefully executed return to original sailing condition is being eagerly followed, and Ilen was the centre piece of the recent Baltimore heritage weekend.

The thoughtful and thorough restoration of the Ilen is playing an important role, both nationally and regionally, in renewing and developing skills in boat technology. The range of skills, from woodcraft and engineering to rigging and sail, are considerable and we in our boat building school in Limerick find that their acquisition is very affirming and revitalising even for those who previously felt rather disengaged.

Ilen's completion will represent a coming of age for Ireland's maritime heritage, and will provide a significant boost to Ireland's image among our European neighbours as an island nation committed to conserving and fostering interest in our tangible maritime heritage.

The progress of the work is being eagerly watched by our European costal neighbours, who send us encouragement, advice, workers for the workshops and some cash through Leader funds.