Ireland wasn’t always the best place to land if you were a Spanish sailor of the 16th century. The ships of the Spanish Armada which ended up on Irish shores received different sorts of welcomes. And sometimes the local people were more pleasant than the weather conditions.
The Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society was formed in 1839 after the loss of fishing boats in a storm off the north Devon coast. I first came across them after noticing the mine along the strand in Ballycastle in Antrim. And this organisation is not only active in the United Kingdom, but also in the Republic of Ireland. Shipwrecks and poor sailors have no borders!