Dublin marks 200th anniversary of the Lifeboat service
Dublin will today mark the 200th anniversary of the Lifeboat service in the region.
The first lifeboat was launched from Sandycove in Dublin Bay in 1803.
Among today’s anniversary events will be an ecumenical service in Saint Michael's church in Dun Laoghaire in honour of those who have served on the lifeboats.
Among those to be remembered are the fifteen crewmen who drowned during a rescue mission off Blackrock in 1895.
Claire Brennan from the Royal National Lifeboats of Ireland says they have a proud history. "They are reckoned to have saved at least a thousand people from death and obviously hundreds and hundreds of others.
"We have a well established volunteer based rescue service which was taken over by the RNLI in 1824 and they are on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, ready to answer the call for help whenever it is required."
