TOURISM
Developing our coastal heritage tourism through the Spanish Armada
by Dr Peter Bolan, Ulster Business School
I
n stormy weather conditions in 1588 a number of ships from the Spanish Armada invasion of England foundered off the north and west coast of Ireland.
Whilst the vast majority of sailors perished, some made it ashore in various locations, from Lacada Point near the Giant’ s Causeway in Northern Ireland to Donegal, Sligo, Galway and Kerry along Ireland’ s west coast.
Whilst some facilities and activities exist to mark this connection that Ireland has with the Armada it is arguably an under developed resource for tourism.
We have seen our maritime heritage developed and utlised to good effect in Belfast in recent years and rightly so.
Belfast was the birthplace of thousands of vessels, from luxury liners to naval warships, including notably RMS Titanic and HMS Belfast. Furthermore, the River Lagan was the main import and export route connecting the city and its wares to the world, employing thousands of workers by shipbuilders Harland and Wolff and indeed the company’ s iconic yellow gantry cranes Samson and Goliath still dominate the city skyline today.
However, further north on the Antrim coast near the Giant’ s Causeway we have a much older significant example of maritime heritage that can form a hugely important element of our tourist product.
Our maritime heritage links with the Armada go back much longer than any maritime heritage previously commemorated and we are now at last seeing this begin to receive more attention.
An event took place on the 26th May at the Causeway Visitor Centre to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery and recovery of the treasure from the Girona.
The galleass Girona was one of the largest ships involved in the Armada invasion but foundered and sank off Lacada Point, not far from Dunluce Castle and the Giant’ s Causeway on the north Antrim coast in 1588.
The wreck of such a vessel is noted for the loss of life that occurred and the gold treasures since recovered.
The Girona, sailing up the west coast of Ireland had anchored in Killybegs harbour for some repairs. Some 800 survivors from other wrecks that had already occurred were taken on board.
In addition to its own crew then the Girona had substantial additional sailors on board when it went down off the Antrim coast, with over 1300 lives lost( a mere handful of the crew made it to shore).
Whilst some washed up salvage( including
58 www. businessfirstonline. co. uk three brass cannons) are said to have been recovered by Sorley Boy MacDonnell( of Dunluce Castle) at the time, the most famous recovery of treasure was in 1967 when after much searching and exploration, a team of Belgian divers led by Robert Stenuit brought up one of the greatest hauls of treasure from a wrecked Spanish Armada ship.
To this day those treasures, including the famous jewel encrusted golden salamander can be seen in the Ulster Museum. The recent 50th anniversary event to commemorate this was the brainchild of the North Coast Armada Connection in conjunction with Causeway Coast and Glens Council.
The evening event reception had the Girona gold on display( on loan from the Ulster Museum). In the afternoon, a number of services took place, in particular at St. Cuthbert’ s graveyard, where some 260 bodies that had washed ashore were buried in unmarked graves.
A commemorative stone was also laid there at the service to mark this.
This event was merely the beginning. The North Coast Armada Connection, of which I am also a committee member, and led by Dr Bob Curran, has a strategy to make much more of this significant element of maritime heritage.
The wider concept of an Armada trail along the west and north coast of Ireland is very much on the cards. This would be a highly beneficial addition to the already growing popularity of the coastline as a tourism resource.
An Armada themed conference examining issues related to identity, culture and heritage as well as the tourism significance of the connections is being planned for next year to
take place on Ulster University’ s Coleraine campus( coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the University itself which began in Coleraine in 1968).
Whilst awareness of the Armada connections are currently limited amongst international visitors, we have seen some facets of local community and local business embrace such a connection.
Lacada Brewery in Portrush( specialising in craft beer) are named after Lacada Point where the Girona went down, and the famed golden salamander is a prominent part of their logo.
It is time to raise the strong Armada connection yet further and to develop and harness this important element of history to become a more visible part of our tourism product, one with a hugely dramatic and interesting story to be told.
Our tourism product in Northern Ireland is going from strength to strength in recent years. If we can properly unveil, develop and showcase more of our untapped treasures like this, then we can truly chart a course to real tourism success.