Sunday March 29th will mark the centenary of the birth of arguably the greatest Irish boatbuilder of his generation, Jimmy Furey, of Mount Plunkett, Lecarrow.
To commemorate the landmark, Mr. Furey’s estate is permanently lodging what papers of the boatbuilder’s remained in his cottage and boatshed at the time of his death to Roscommon County Library.
The ultimate aim of the project is the establishment of an easily accessible source of information and inspiration about Jimmy’s life for young boatbuilding talents wishing to follow in his footsteps.
“While my uncle had no desire for a permanent museum or exhibit glorifying his work, he was unfailingly generous in his support of younger boatbuilders who approached him for advice.
“As a result, I believe he would have been quietly delighted to see his papers used to help sustain a tradition that was his lifelong passing,” said Mr. Furey’s nephew and chief executor, John Fuery.
During his lifetime, Mr. Furey ‘clinker built’ more than twenty Shannon One Designs (SOD) dinghies between the early 1970’s and the mid-2000’s. Otherwise known as a ‘lapstrake’, clinker building is a highly skilled process involving the precise overlapping of planks for boatbuilding.
Jimmy began working life as an eel fisherman before later repairing and constructing rowing boats. He was also gifted at crafting detailed scale models of boats and received numerous accolades during his lifetime such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Medal. His work has also been permanently showcased in the Greenwich Maritime Museum in London.
The son of Charlie and Mary Furey and from a family of two brothers and two sisters, Jimmy lived his entire life at Mountplunkett, the former landed estate, on the shores of Lough Ree in South Roscommon, residing in his grandfather’s homeplace, until his passing in 2020.
The late Jimmy Furey was also an active member of the Lough Ree Yacht Club, the country’s second oldest Yacht Club, founded in 1770, taking to sailing at the tender age of fifty!
During Jimmy’s lifetime, he was the subject of an acclaimed ‘Hands’ documentary on RTE television, narrated by acclaimed writer, Benedict Kiely. An obituary highlighting Jimmy’s rich life was profiled in The Guardian newspaper in September 2020.
Roscommon County Library, Executive Librarian, Ruairí Ó hAodha said he was honoured to accept Mr. Furey’s estate’s generous gift of the boatbuilder’s effects. “The library looks forward to welcoming anyone and everyone interested in learning more about Jimmy Furey; or hopefully even continuing his life’s work.
“While the tranche of papers we have received from the estate has provided this not-for-profit initiative with a very solid foundation, it is our hope that this will be an organic and ever-evolving project.
“To this end, we would be delighted to hear from anyone wishing to further enrich its contents by sharing their memories of meeting, sailing or working with Mr. Furey, or loaning/permanently lodging pictures/scans of him or his boats.”
For further details of how you can view or contribute to the Jimmy Furey Centenary Collection, please call/email John Fuery on 089 200 4349, email fuerycreative@gmail.com, or call/email Roscommon Library on 090 663 7312, or email rohaodha@roscommoncoco.ie/roslib@roscommoncoco.ie.
