This heritage boat is being turned into a floating hotel on the River Liffey
Some €6.6 million will be spent on the project to restore and refit the Naomh Éanna ship.
DUBLIN CITY WILL get a new hotel on the River Liffey.
The hotel will be based in national heritage ship PS Naomh Éanna, which has been given a licence to berth on the city’s river at Custom House Quay.
The licence comes as part of the Docklands water animation strategy, Dublin City Council’s plan to improve how water amenities in the capital are used and managed.
Businessman Sam Field Corbett, whose company also restored Dublin landmark the Cill Áirne, is behind the project. He owns Grand Canal passenger barges and the Escape Boats attraction in Dublin.
Field Corbett had been attempting to save the Naomh Éanna ship by putting it in Galway, but that plan was not to come to fruition.
Once used to carry passengers and supplies between Galway and the Aran Islands, the Dublin-built ferry has been berthed in the city’s Grand Canal Dock since 1989.
After falling into disrepair, the vessel had been due to be scrapped by Waterways Ireland when safety concerns were raised in a hull inspection.
A render of how the boat will look.
Campaign group Naomh Éanna Trust was set up to try to restore the ship back in 2005.
After three years of efforts, the group has secured a berth and private funding of €6.6 million to restore the ship and refit the ship as a 28-bedroom hotel. The hotel will have a glazed restaurant on the boat deck.
The campaign group says it will “represent the ship building legacy of the Dublin Port area and will recall her past service to the Aran Islands from Galway”.
The group hopes the works will be carried out in the 250-year-old Ringsend Graving Docks and will take nine months.
Written by Paul Hosford and posted on TheJournal.ie
