Mullingar man is project manager for build of world’s largest scientific icebreaker
Eilís Ryan
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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Out for testing last week in the Bay of Biscay as it comes close to completion is what is going to be the world’s largest scientific ice-breaker ship, “Nuyina”, a behemoth that is longer than Croke Park, taller than the Cusack Stand, and capable of travelling without restocking or refuelling for ninety days.
The reason the dimensions of this Australian government-owned craft are referenced against Croke Park in this story is because the man with all the stats and maths for the ship is Ronan Maguire, who happens to come from a town not much spoken of in shipbuilding circles - Mullingar.
An accountant by profession and a native of Cullionbeg, Ronan is the son of former ACOT/Teagasc chief Conor Maguire and his wife, Maura, and is brother to siblings Niamh, Conor and Aoife. For Nuyina, Ronan is the overall project manager – which means he is overseeing the overall build, equipping, testing and eventually management of the ship which has been commissioned by the Australian government’s “AAD” – the Australian Antarctic Division.
The RSV Nuyina is a research and supply vessel (RSV) constructed to support Australian bases in Antarctica. It represents a once in a generation investment and is the centrepiece of the Australian Antarctic Strategy and 20 Year Action Plan launched on April 27 2016. The $1.9 billion (€1.2B) package will cover the design, build and 30 year operational and maintenance lifespan of the icebreaker. It is the single biggest investment in the history of Australia’s Antarctic Program.
When it goes into service, RSV Nuyina will provide a world-class scientific platform for Antarctic researchers, carrying cutting-edge equipment to study the depths of the Southern Ocean, sea ice and the upper atmosphere. With capacity to carry 117 expeditioners, 1,200 tonnes of cargo and 1.9 million litres of fuel, the icebreaker will be the main lifeline to Australia’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations for decades to come. The RSV Nuyina will ferry supplies, samples, equipment and personnel between Australia and its five Antarctic base stations. It is also expected to be key to the AAD’s efforts to obtain samples of million-year old ice as part of the drive to peer into past climate periods.
“I have to pinch myself sometimes but I have grown into the job over the years it's not something I ever thought I would end up doing,” says Ronan, explaining that a ship of this scale is built just once every thirty years.
“So, the timing was just critical and I am very lucky to have just caught it at the right time too.”
Ronan is an ex-CBS boy, having been with the brothers at both primary and secondary level.
“I was an altar boy in the cathedral at one stage. I was in the Scouts. I played hurling for Cullion. I was in the Mullingar Town Band,” he recalls.
Post Leaving Cert, Ronan went to what was then called Athlone RTC (now the AIT) and studied accountancy, taking up a job then with the Mullingar accountancy firm Gibson and Fletcher and obtaining his ACCA qualification.
However, competing for Ronan’s attention was music, and he became a member of a band called “Judas Diary”, which actually won the Coca Cola Beat Box challenge in 1994 and played at the Trip to Tipp. Not just that, but they even had The Cranberries supporting them.
“We toured Europe a few times around the mid 90s, but then we split up and that sort of set in motion my travels, so I went off and I was sort of in India, for about six months. I was in various different spots I suppose until I finally arrived in Sydney in 2000, to meet my sister Aoife, and just in time for the Olympic Games.
It was a heady time to be there: “It was an incredible place to be: it was just like a party city and there were so many Irish in Sydney at that time.”
Over twenty years on, Ronan is still in touch with a lot of the Irish community in Sydney: “We have meetings every couple of months with the Irish community; groups such as The Ireland Fund and the Lansdowne Club are set up to sort of help and promote Irish companies in Australia and to encourage trade and we get involved in fundraising activity now and again so I am still connected with the Irish community in that respect.”
Not long after his arrival, Ronan began working for the international firm Serco, which specialises in contracting services for governments, and with them he has been involved in the construction of 17 ships over the years, largely for the Australian navy.
“This is my 18th ship and this is by far and away the biggest endeavour that I have ever done,” says Ronan.
“With the other ships I wasn't in the same role, but I am the project manager for this project and there is a lot more responsibility - a whole lot - and this ship is an enormous jump, but it took me all those ‘incremental ships’ along the way to get here. I wouldn't have just jumped straight into this one without having gone through building all those other ships through the years, and made lots of mistakes, as everyone does during the start out. I am not an engineer but have literally spent my working life for the last 20-years doing engineering, and working with designs and drawings.”
From conception to where it is now, work on the Nuyina has taken almost eight years: it took two years alone to win the bid: “We had to design it and we had to present our designs. It is for the Australian Antarctic Division, and because it is a scientific ship we had to prove what the ship can do, how it can break ice, and how it can sustain their environmental requirements and that sort of thing.”
One of the areas of focus of the Australian Antarctic Program on the ship will be on why numbers of krill – one of the building blocks of the marine ecosystem - are declining so rapidly
Ronan thrives on the work, and on this project in particular which may necessitate on-board trips all the way to Antarctica.
“I find it very interesting it's something that fascinates me,” he says.
“I think it will be the experience of a lifetime. I've never been down there I've worked on the ship for 8 years and now it is getting close to completion and I am really very excited about it.”
The downside is that for the rest of this year, he won’t see much of his wife Janice and their 10-year old daughter Ciara and stepsons Junior and Jimi: “That is the real sacrifice: it is very painful,” he says.
“I am here a week now and I won't be back in Australia until October and then if I go to the Antarctic, you are talking about another 50 days on top of that, so another six weeks.
“There are certain people who love it and there are certain people who will not go near that kind of lifestyle because there is a work life balance you need to strike.
“I can run this from Sydney and I will be happy with that but I could be on the ship for a couple of the voyages to see what is going on. But it is not my job to be on the ship the whole time and I certainly would not want to sacrifice the work life balance for that.”
See also: https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2021/07/27/longer-than-croke-park-taller-than-the-cusack-stand/
See also: https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2021/07/27/mullingar-antarctic-mystery/