Boat-building unites Belfast community

A traditional wooden rowing boat, built by community group Lagan Currachs, was launched on the river Lagan in Belfast yesterday.

The group, made up of people of all ages, secured Heritage Lottery funding for the project in 2014 and built the 33 foot currach in the Titanic quarter in Belfast, with help from Lough Neagh boats.

For many of the 70 people who got involved in the project it was their first experience of traditional boat building.

Niamh Scullion who chairs and leads the group, hopes that the boat will be used for trips on the river Lagan and in Belfast Lough and beyond, and that it will open up the river as well as bringing the local community together.

‘We would like to use it as a tool to bring together divided communities living along the Lagan, and from all over Belfast’, she said in a statement.

‘Later on, we will use the boat for “caminos by sea” possibly to the Western Isles of Scotland and further afield. The boat is very easy to row so it is an accessible activity for all abilities and ages.’