Standing alongside the O’Hanlons and Capt.Ian Moriarty, to be photographed at Waterford Port, I certainly felt my lack of stature, even if I was being described as the “veteran maritime journalist” after I had heard their worklife accounts of driving cranes, high above Waterford Port.
There are some families which have amazing marine-related history. The O’Hanlons are certainly one of those. Their family has contributed 140 years to driving cranes at Waterford Port. I was talking to the crane-driving brothers Gavin and Derek O’Hanlon, along with Gavin’s son, Michael – the latest to join this remarkable family tradition.
I was interviewing them as host of the Podcast series ‘11/11’ produced by the Port of Waterford to celebrate 1,111 years this year at Ireland’s oldest port. Capt.Ian Moriarty is Deputy Harbour Master at Waterford and showed me around the port, which has the unique asset of a direct rail line onto the quayside.
Gavin says the path to crane driving was paved by his older brother: “He who taught me, and I taught the youngest one,” he says. “My father was a crane driver and his brothers were too. On my mother’s side as well. It just ran in the families. We followed each other into it.”
Gavin began in 1978 with Bell Lines as a Compound Controller. By 1980, he was in the cab of a gantry crane, learning from his father at Ferrybank. The two worked side-by-side for a decade until his father passed away. Over the years, Gavin has seen countless containers come and go. “The essentials of the job remain the same – concentration, calmness and sharp eyesight. It’s like driving a car or a truck. You can’t take your eyes off it, not even for a second. You’re dealing with heavy weights and big machines. A small mistake can be very dangerous.”
Crane operators at Waterford work from dizzying heights, about 30 metres (over 90 feet) above the ground. Their workday starts with a trip up to the cab, usually by lift. The old days were more challenging!
“It used to be straight up the ladder. You had to be fit and not afraid of heights first thing in the morning,” Gavin recalls.
While technology has evolved, bringing newer, taller cranes to match the ever-larger ships docking at the oldest port in Ireland, which has developed markedly at Belview outside the city, the core of the job remains the same. The challenge of manoeuvring containers onto ships, trucks and railcars requires more than technical skill – a steady hand and nerves of steel.
Derek and Gavin work with multiple teams. Onshore, lorry drivers await containers, while on the ship, the crew ensures cargo is properly secured. And amid it all, safety is paramount. “The container is your blind spot when it’s hanging,” says Gavin. “You always have to know who’s around it and make sure they’re not under it. The job can be stressful, particularly in adverse weather conditions. Wind can affect the crane’s stability and operations can get tense. “It does have its moments. That’s where you need that cool head. You can’t get overexcited. You’ve got a job to do, and it has to be done safely.”
Michael, the youngest O’Hanlon on the cranes, grew up watching his father and uncle. “From a child, you kind of adopt an interest,” he says. “You’re looking straight down all day, through the glass floor. It can be a bit of a pain in the neck, literally, but you get used to it!”
For the O’Hanlons, the crane cab isn’t just a workplace – it’s a vantage point where family heritage meets daily life. A place where generations of theirs have looked down on the River Suir, keeping cargo moving smoothly and safely.
They are featured in a new podcast series ‘11/11’ produced by the Port of Waterford to celebrate 1,111 years this year at Ireland’s oldest port.
You can hear this extraordinary family on the Podcast – and the rest of the series to be released during this year on: https://www.portofwaterford.com/home/port-1111/
There is a shorter version on the July edition of my SEASCAPES Podcast and you can read and see more about the O’Hanlons in the ‘Mainly About People’ feature in the June edition of the MARINE TIMES newspaper out now – in the shops and online.
