Shuttle bus service to be in place in Coosan for RNLI station opening tomorrow
Tomorrow (Saturday) will be a landmark day in the history of Lough Ree RNLI, as it officially opens its €1.2m lifeboat station at Coosan Pont and also formally names its Atlantic 85 class lifeboat Tara Scougall in memory of a beloved wife, mother and daughter.
The dual celebration begins at 2pm tomorrow, and the Lough Ree RNLI volunteers are looking forward to welcoming supporters, friends, and the general public to the event.
Due to the confined road access to the venue, a shuttle bus service is to be provided from the car park at Coosan Church to Coosan Point, starting at 1pm.
General motor access to Coosan Point will be restricted on Saturday afternoon, following safety advice from An Garda Siochana.
RNLI Chief Executive Mark Dowie, and Anna Classon, the new Head of Region for the RNLI in Ireland, are among those who will be in attendance at Coosan Point.
At a special service of dedication, the charity’s Atlantic 85 class lifeboat, Tara Scougall, will be officially named in honour of a mother, daughter and wife who lived an active life on the water before her premature death from cancer at the age of 43.
Tara was introduced to the water by her late father John and, sharing his passion for boating, she ran an online yachting and boating magazine for a time.
An avid traveller and explorer in her professional life, Tara was one of a Microsoft team who were responsible for the creation of Expedia.
Tomorrow, Lough Ree RNLI look forward to welcoming Tara’s mother Diana, her husband James, and her children Eleanor and James, to Athlone for the official service of dedication for the lifeboat named in her honour.
The new home for the lifeboat and its volunteer crew will also be officially opened on the same day.
Built at a cost of €1.2m, on a site donated by the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, the lifeboat station took just over two years to construct.
The state-of-the-art facility provides an ideal training base for the volunteer crew and immediate access to the lake for the charity’s lifeboat.
"This is a very special occasion for our station, and we are most grateful to James Scougall for this generous gift in Tara’s memory which has funded this lifeboat," said Kevin Ganly, Lough Ree RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager.
"The opening of new lifeboat station is a great way to celebrate 10 years of the RNLI on Lough Ree and we look forward to serving the community into the future."