AK Ilen

Photo catch-up for the weekend, beginning with the Framing Out ceremony for AK Ilen on Friday afternoon. First launched in 1926, up until the 90s the Ilen worked in the Falklands, transporting livestock between the islands. And through a somewhat bizarre coincidence, she ended up returning to Baltimore, where she was built.

Ilen is currently in a stone shed, with lush ivy creeping through; the cobbled floor harkening back to times when it was the courtyard of an O'Driscoll stronghold.

For the ceremony, children carried trenchers of smoking gum arabic incense through the crowd, and Brother Anthony of Glenstal Abbey spoke effortlessly of the wonder of a creature of land transforming to a creature of the sea. Live Oak was fixed to the Ilen to give thanks for the wood, and blessed as Brother Anthony invoked the elements of wood, air, water and fire.

I helped with fire, being one of the designated Giver of Candles :-)