Keeping watch on Down coast over the centuries

Keeping watch on Down coast over the centuries

15 February 2023

A FASCINATING new book which charts the history of the Coast Guard service in the Strangford Lough area has just been published.

Inverbrena Local History Group has launched A History of Strangford Division of The Coast Guard.

It records the history of Strangford, Killard, Gunn’s Island/Ballyhornan, Portaferry and Tara coast guard stations, which covered the entrance to Strangford Lough. 

The official launch took place at Inverbrena Community Hall in Strangford last Thursday when members of Inverbrena Local History Group were delighted to welcome a number of guests, including Alan Poots representing the Rural Community Network.

The publication would not have been possible without the assistance of the Heritage Fund and the Rural Community Network as part of their Ours To Share funding programme. 

Sincere thanks are also extended to local community organisations, local archives and government departments and local history groups, in addition to local historians including Michael McConville, Gerard Lennon and Billy Carlile, for their contributions.

The book details the origins of the Coast Guard, which began with the efforts to combat smuggling, which was a hugely lucrative trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.

To combat this illegal trade the Preventive Water Guard, the forerunner to the Coast Guard service, was established in stations around the coast. The aim of the force was to prevent the landing of smuggled goods and to ensure proper collection of the revenue owed to the government. 

The book initially gives an overview of smuggling generally, before focusing in on the individual stations within the Strangford Division, describing the arduous work of the coastguardsmen, illustrated through the use of historic newspaper extracts, as well as through the family history of individual coastguardsmen.

In the book descendants of the coastguardsmen recount a little of their interesting maritime family history and the Inverbrena Local History Group is grateful to Kevin Langley, Deirdre Ritchie and Dermot Quail for sharing these details. 

Kevin Langley has provided a profile of his ancestor, James Coree, who was born on June 29, 1846, at Killard County Down, the son of Daniel Coree, aged 46, a coastguardsman.

The Coree family originally came from Co. Clare, where it is believed by the family that James’ father Daniel Coree was born about 1800 in the village of Ballycoree near Ennis.  Most of James’ service appears to have been with coastguard ships and shore stations.

In later life he was the harbour master in Ardglass. He died on March 3, 1919, in Ardglass at the age of 72 and is buried in St Malachy’s graveyard, Kilclief, along with his parents. 

Deirdre Ritchie and Dermot Quail share a little of their family history in their article entitled ‘James Quaile, 1847 - 1930, and His Family.’ James Quail, the son of Darby Quail and Catherine Holland, was initially employed as a mariner and sailor, but latterly he was a boatman with the Strangford coast guard as were some of his sons.

The group are also extremely grateful to Marian Knox from Ardglass for her assistance in providing historical details regarding Dugald Molloy, coastguardsman, and his descendants.  

The book also outlines the varying types of accommodation occupied by the coastguardsmen in each locality and their subsequent history following the demise of the coast guard. Denis Mayne, Peter Lawson, John Pinkerton, Tim Beringer and local historians Noel Teggart and Colm Rooney provided extremely relevant assistance in this respect. 

Thanks are also extended to Hugh Charles Keating, as well as to Margaret and Gerry Byers, for sharing their memories as well as their invaluable information as to how the coastguard developed post 1923 and the part that they each played in that process.

A History of Strangford Division of The Coast Guard is priced at £6 and will be available in Kevin Ogs newsagents, Strangford, as well as in Portaferry Post Office, The Square, Portaferry.