Animation & Motion Design
Henry Hughes
Bád Eddie
This piece portrays the demise of Eddie’s boat while the locality prospers, and generations evolve with the boat in their lives.
In the 1970’s, this oakwood, clinker-built fishing boat was left on a sheltered beach in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) region because Eddie could not raise funds to fix his boat. Now, the same problem is experienced by a local committee set up to preserve the boat.
This social project is a payback for the prosperity, recognition and most importantly, the memories accumulated in local, national and global visitors who have embraced the boat and made it an object of significant interest.
Children played on it, teenagers met there, and adults posed for photographs, trained, played, held concerts and walked around as it stood on the pristine beach.
Eddie’s boat has attained iconic status – it is a regional landmark.
For nearly 50 years climate and nature have reduced the boat, named ‘Cara na Mara’ by Eddie, to a skeletal wreck. It is time to ‘stop the Rot!’.
The community acknowledge that Bád Eddie gave a lot to Gaoth Dobhar (Gweedore). Residents and visitors deserve a new ‘constant’, a replica /monument.