Lough Derg Lifeboat Station
| Inshore Lifeboat | |
|---|---|
| Launch Method | Afloat |
| Address | Lough Derg Yacht Club, Dromineer, County Tipperary, Ireland |
| Telephone | 087 600 4366 |
Explore two centuries of RNLI lifeboat history, heroic rescues, and the enduring tradition of saving lives at sea.
Lough Derg Lifeboat Station is an inland station at Dromineer, on the eastern shore of Lough Derg in County Tipperary — the largest lake on the River Shannon. Established in 2004, it covers a vast inland waterway, effectively a small sea some 24 miles long, which draws thousands of leisure craft each year. The station operates an Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat from the Lough Derg Yacht Club.
In 2003 the Irish Coast Guard took over responsibility for inland search and rescue, and asked the RNLI to place a lifeboat on Lough Derg, the largest lake on the River Shannon. At roughly 39 kilometres long and up to 13 kilometres wide, the lough is effectively a small inland sea, with squally winds and thousands of cruisers, sailing boats and angling craft using its waters each year. A site at the Lough Derg Yacht Club at Dromineer was found to be strategically suitable, with enough local population to provide a crew, and the station was established in 2004.
It has operated successive Atlantic-class inshore lifeboats, and now runs the Atlantic 85 Jean Spier (B-911), on service since 2019. Lying on the boundary of Counties Tipperary, Clare and Galway, the lough is subject to sudden squalls funnelled between the surrounding hills, and the crew train for fast-changing conditions far from the sea. The station works alongside the RNLI’s other inland lifeboat on the Shannon system, at Lough Ree, the two together covering the busiest navigable waters of Ireland’s longest river.
