Safety in Focus at Dublin Port for Irish Port Safety Week 2026
23 October 2026
Dublin Port joined ports across Ireland for the sixth annual Irish Port Safety Week, held from 20th to 23rd October, bringing together staff, Dublin SafePort partners and the wider port community for four days focused on workplace, water and personal safety, wellbeing and best practice.
The week opened with presentations from Gerard McSweeney of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and Dublin Port’s Michael McKenna, to an audience of Dublin Port staff and Dublin SafePort partners.
Michael asked the audience to picture the port at three o’clock in the morning: rain off the bay, a pilot boarding a moving ship in the dark, a crane driver hours into a shift. These are the people keeping Dublin and Ireland’s economy moving, and his message was that safety has to reflect the real conditions in which they work, particularly during night-time operations.
In an interactive exercise, all 35 attendees shared one word that captures what safety means to them. Care and protection came through most strongly, alongside people, family, responsibility and trust. Michael noted that the responses reflected a safety culture across the SafePort community centred on people as much as rules. Compliance, he said, is the floor, not the ceiling, and when something goes wrong the better question is not ‘who broke the rule?’, but ‘why it made sense at the time?’.
He also described what happens behind the scenes of Dublin SafePort, where organisations from across the port community share near misses, experiences and lessons learned to improve safety collectively. Michael’s ambition is to take Dublin SafePort to a wider audience, across the whole port estate, and deeper, into fatigue, wellbeing and support for those working through the night.
Throughout the week, a varied programme brought different aspects of safety, wellbeing and resilience to life.
Killian O’Kelly of the RNLI gave practical guidance on staying safe around water, from coastal walks and swimming to boating, watersports and emergency response.
Guided boat tours aboard the St. Bridget, with commentary from Michael McKenna, gave participants a waterside perspective on Dublin Port’s engineering projects, infrastructure developments and the safety measures that support operations across the Port. Staff also tried the VR driving simulator and took part in CPR drop-in sessions with Declan Sheridan.
Safety Week also reached into the local community, with water safety talks at St. Patrick’s National School in Ringsend and St. Joseph’s Primary School in East Wall. Pupils at both schools took part in the Port Safety Week Colouring Competition, along with children of Dublin Port staff, with lots of brilliant entries received from budding artists from five and under right through to the 10+ category.
A highlight of the week saw Ray Goggins, former Special Forces Operator, bestselling author and familiar face from RTÉ’s Ultimate Hell Week, join attendees at The Substation to share his perspective on resilience, leadership and mental strength under pressure.
Michael McKenna, Chief Operations Officer at Dublin Port, commented: “Safety is lived every night on our quays, in the dark and the rain, by people who need to know someone has their back. Dublin SafePort has shown what trust between partners can achieve, and our ambition now is to build on that across the whole port estate.”
Dublin Port would like to thank everyone who helped make Irish Port Safety Week 2026 a success, including the Health and Safety Authority, Dublin SafePort partners, the RNLI, Ray Goggins, Dublin Bay Cruises, port users and the wider Dublin Port community for their support throughout the week.
