Kinsale RNLI welcomes scroll to mark 200 years of saving lives at sea

Kinsale RNLI welcomed the RNLI scroll as part of the ‘Connecting our Communities’ relay event to mark the RNLI’s 200 years of saving lives at sea.

The event sees a scroll, bearing the RNLI pledge, being passed through RNLI communities – lifeboat stations, shops, lifeguard units and fundraising branches – around Ireland and the UK to be signed by representatives at each location on its route.

Over the course of seven months, the five-metre-long scroll will pass through 240 RNLI locations around the UK and Ireland before finishing its journey in October at Douglas on the Isle of Man, which was home to the RNLI’s founder, Sir William Hillary.

By this time, it will carry around 700 signatures.

Volunteers in Kinsale to sign the scroll in recent days were Nick Searls from the lifesaving operations team, Gail Swanton from fundraising and Gerard Quinn from water safety.

Between them, Nick, Gail and Gerard have over 70 years of volunteering with the RNLI.

Ford has supplied a specially designed all-electric E-Transit van to transport the 5m long scroll from one RNLI community to the next for signing.

The last signature to be added will be the patron of the RNLI, King Charles III.

On the scroll is the pledge, which reads:

“Whoever we are, wherever we are from, we are one crew, ready to save lives.

“We’re powered by passion, talent and kindness, like generations of selfless lifesavers before us.

“This is our watch, we lead the way, valuing each other, trusting each other, depending on one another, volunteering to face the storm together.

“Knowing that, with courage, nothing is impossible.

“That is what has always driven us to save everyone we can. It's what makes every one of us a lifesaver.” Beneath the pledge, printed in seven languages (English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Manx, and Cornish), it says: “Signed in 2024 by representatives of the RNLI’s lifesaving communities, on behalf of all who strive to save every one.”