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It made landfall at Gaoth Dobhair in Donegal in 1977 for minor repairs, but more than four decades later, Bád Eddie has become an iconic structure on the beach.
The fishing boat is the place where each vacationer takes a picture and the locals pose for weddings, communions and even baptisms. He has been featured in Vogue magazine, as well as the music video for Clannad and Bono’s In a Lifetime.
Sonia Gillespie watches the scene every day from her home overlooking the beach.
He researched Bád Eddie, which was built in Brittany, France, for a documentary for TG4 and is now part of a new local committee created to campaign to preserve what remains of it by incorporating the skeleton into a permanent structure on the beach.
A local boat builder carried out the necessary repairs on some planks after they first ran aground, but the engine was never replaced and the boat just stayed there, day after day, month after month, year after year, becoming part from the landscape.
Bád Eddie has been disintegrating over the decades, but it has also become a major tourist attraction and the locals want it to be preserved to keep tourism alive.
Sinn Féin’s local TD Pearse Doherty is one of those who took his wedding photos with Bád Eddie 16 years ago yesterday.
He is centrally involved in what he said was an ambitious plan to create the first permanent sculpture at sea in Ireland, a life-size stainless steel replica of the ship, incorporating what is left of the structure.
Doherty said the project is supported by the Donegal County Council, through which funding is expected, but more money will be needed and a gofundme campaign has been launched.
Mary Coyle, president of Coiste Bád Eddie, said the campaign got off to a good start with a recent concert on the beach with some world-renowned local musicians like Moya Brennan and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. They have raised more than € 6,000 so far.
The organizers want to spread the call for support everywhere, including the Donegal diaspora abroad, and plan to hold an auction, when safe, of paintings of the ship, promised by many prominent artists.
A team from Queen’s University, Belfast, is due to visit the area next week to create 3D images of Bád Eddie that will help design the permanent structure.
Committee member Anne Marie Ferry said the ship is vital to the future of tourism in the area. While they have a good idea of what the sculpture will look like, they are open to other ideas that people may have to preserve what has become an icon in the community.
The immediate priority for the committee now is to protect what’s left of Bad Eddie from the coming winter.
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