Mullingar Antarctic mystery

Mullingar man Ronan Maguire, in front of Nuyina, the Australian government's new icebreaker, which is intended to serve on Antarctic missions for the coming thirty years. Ronan is the overall project manager for Nuyina – which means he is overseeing the overall build, equipping, testing and eventually management of the ship.

There is a signpost for Mullingar at the Antarctic - and Mullingar man Ronan Maguire who will be heading to the Antarctic this Autumn is mad keen to see if he can find out how it got there.

At “Casey Station” visitors from around the world have erected fingerposts pointing to various locations. There are only about thirty places on the signpost – and among them, Westmeath’s county town features, reveals Ronan, who is overseeing the overall build, equipping, testing and eventually management of the RSV Nuyina ship which has been commissioned by the Australian government’s “AAD” – the Australian Antarctic Division.

“I don't know who put it there, but I would love to know who was there,” says Ronan – who hopes if he gets there and gets a photo they might hang it in his favourite Mullingar pub, Canton Caseys.

Photo by Eilis Ryan

In normal times, Ronan would be home around once a year – but since his parents made the journey to Australia in 2019, and then Covid broke, it has now been three years:

“The thing I love about Canton Caseys is you go in, and the staff will just look at me and put on a Guinness. I will not even ask for a pint of Guinness: they will just put one on because they recognise me - but as far as they know, I could be just working in Dublin. They don't know on what part of the planet I live and that's what I love about it. I feel very at home. There’s a great sense of belonging and you know that the people remember and recognise you and have a connection to you. I just have to walk in and they know me and know what I drink.

“If you are used to it you don't even think about it but if you're coming from another country it is one of those small things that you love.”

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https://fb.watch/v/Z1ReVZJL/

The Australian government's massive new icebreaker - the RSV Nuyina - for which the project manager is Mullingar man Ronan Maguire, filmed in the Bay of Biscay last week alongside the British icebreaker the RSV Sir David Attenborough which coincidentally happened to be doing sea trials in the same area. The Sir David Attenborough was the ship that the British public, in a popular ballot, voted to name "Boaty McBoatface". Footage courtesy of Flying Focus and the Australian Antarctic Division.

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https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2021/07/27/longer-than-croke-park-taller-than-the-cusack-stand/

https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2021/07/27/mullingar-man-is-project-manager-for-build-of-worlds-largest-scientific-icebreaker/