Best wishes to all our supporters. Like many other organisations, PAST’s activities have been severely curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic but our volunteers have not been idle.
EVENTS - We have been unable to hold events and so the programme had to be halted after Adrian Spence’s wonderful talk recounting his “Madcap Adventures” on 28 Feb 2020. We had arranged a great series of events and talks for the rest of 2020 and hope that they will only have been postponed. Once we know when it is possible for them to resume, we will publish a new programme. We are currently exploring the possibility of holding online events.
PUBLICATIONS - We have commenced the publication of what we hope will be an expanding series of leaflets on various topics under the title “A wee bit of maritime history …”. They can be obtained free either as hard copies from shops in Portaferry and Strangford or as PDF's via Downloads on this website.
The booklet, “The Mysterious Stranding of The S.S. Georgetown Victory”, can be obtained at our visitor centre The Ropewalk. It is free but you may wish to make a donation to help support our work. We await publication of “A 1000 Years of the Portaferry-Strangford Ferry”.
JIM BLANEY MEMORIAL ARCHIVE - Work to produce a catalogue of the Jim Blaney Memorial Archive continues to progress and is now close to the point where it can be used.
THE ROPEWALK MARITIME HERITAGE VISITOR CENTRE – Planning for the 2021 exhibition has commenced. In addition to the presentations for adults, there will be more for young people this year. It is not yet clear whether regulations will allow us to reopen as usual at Easter.