There's always a love story - and the best involves ships and storms. Mary and Rachel Pidgeon, took over their father's hostelry in Ringsend, Dublin, over 200 years ago. They rescued many people from the sea, including a wealthy merchant from Philadelphia. He fell in love with Mary, they married and went to America - and Rachel went with them.
This is part of the story of the Pigeon House in Ringsend, which the girls of the local St Patrick's National School discovered when they got involved in a school art and history project about their locality.
They unearthed all sorts of interesting facts. They visited the Maritime Museum in Dun Laoghaire and painted all sorts of ships and seabirds. They walked to the Pigeon House. They read about Cromwell landing at Ringsend in 1649. They talked about Wolfe Tone who spent a summer in a little house in nearby Irishtown - he remembered those days as the happiest of his life. And they painted the most memorable images onto the school walls.
Ann Gibbons, the teacher who initiated and co-ordinated the project, says the children, in association with artist Pauline O'Connell, produced two outdoor murals and a series of indoor work. "It would lift your heart," she says. "It's so colourful, so full of life.
"Having Pauline here as a role model was great. Some were asking about art college - they could visualise themselves making a living from it. They love to paint. It's all their own work on the walls."
The focus, this being Ringsend, was the sea. "We just looked at various stories about the area. The project focused on local history and the local environment. It's a question of local identity and having a higher regard for their own area and building their self-esteem."
The girls read about a double shipping disaster which claimed almost 400 lives in 1807. For days afterwards the bodies of men, women and children were washed up along the coast. Dun Laoghaire harbour was built as a safe harbour for Dublin after the tragedy.
Gibbons says that, in setting up the arthistory project, they "harrangued local businesses and raised enough money to fund the project, which involved all of the 140 children at the school. The project enabled them to discover the rich maritime history of their village."
The Inner City Trust gave money. So did the ESB and the Irish Glass Bottle Company. Parents and teachers also raised money. Crown Paints provided the paints.
Dr John de Courcy Ireland, the well-known maritime historian, helped the children to unearth some very interesting details. He sent the school's senior classes detailed letters with information, references and cuttings as well as heaps of encouragement. He also performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony last month to celebrate the success of the project.
