Most Portrush street names are straightforward — saints, monarchs, local landowners. Rodney Street is the exception, and the story behind it is a genuinely good one.
A battleship, not a person
The street is named after HMS Rodney, a Royal Navy battleship named for 18th-century Admiral George Rodney, that anchored briefly in West Bay in June 1930 — at the time, one of the largest warships in the world: 710 feet long, a crew of 1,315, and a build cost of £6,500,000. Thousands of spectators turned out to watch her arrive on Monday 9 June, despite seasonal rain, and a motor launch went out to greet Captain A. B. Cunningham and his crew.
The visit was timed to coincide with a ribbon-cutting ceremony: a new development of 28 houses on the Crocknamac Road, built by local contractor H. E. Catherwood, was named Rodney Street in the ship’s honour. Portrush Golf Club gave the visiting officers and crew free passes, and the Causeway Tram threw in complimentary rides to see the famous landmark.
The town that wouldn’t say goodbye
The weather had other ideas. A storm closed in the next morning, forcing Captain Cunningham to take the ship back out to sea rather than risk staying at anchor. When the council chairman sent his farewells, expecting the ship to leave for good, he got a reply that became local legend: “I refuse to say goodbye!” Cunningham relented and kept Rodney anchored offshore. For the next three days the ship rode out a heavy swell that made it too rough for most boats to reach shore, and 120 of the crew reportedly came down with seasickness before the sea finally calmed.
By the weekend the sun was out, and the crew got their welcome after all — honorary membership of Portrush Golf Club, and a ship’s cat, a black Persian kitten presented by Mrs Gormley of Hopefield Avenue and named, appropriately, Rodney.
What happened to the real Rodney
HMS Rodney sailed on 16 June 1930 and went on to a genuinely significant wartime career — she was one of the ships involved in sinking the German battleship Bismarck in 1941, before being withdrawn from Royal Navy service in 1948. Her sister ship, HMS Nelson, returned to Portrush twice more, in 1933 and 1938. Rodney Street itself is still there, now joined by Rodney Square, a quiet, largely overlooked link to a very memorable week in the town’s history.