Irish Ferries third introduced Dover-Calais route ferry, Isle of Inisheer has finally returned to service following a longer than expected dry-docking at the Harland & Wolff Group's Belfast shipyard, writes Jehan Ashmore

Now that a three-ship service is back in place, Irish Ferries can operate to full capacity in advance of the Easter holiday, competing with rivals, DFDS and P&O Ferries.

Isle of Inisheer had entered H&W's Belfast Dry-Dock on 21 February. The winter refit of the ferry was scheduled to have taken around two weeks but instead extended to five weeks to complete works on the former Spain-Balearic Islands serving ferry, Ciudad de Mahon.

The ropax built in 2000 and delivered as Midnight Merchant had previously operated on a UK-France service albeit on the Dover-Dunkerque route and other subsequent roles during its career.

In recent days, Afloat tracked Isle of Inisheer shift berths in Belfast Harbour to the nearby Musgrave Channel at a berth outside H&W's Main Dock, before departing Belfast on 26 March to make the repositioning voyage back to Calais.

On the 27 March, Afloat tracked Isle of Inisheer off Cornwall and when in the English Channel bound for Calais and as of yesterday, the 'Inisheer' arrived at the northern French port.

It was also noted the ferry subsequently made, it is understood, at least three 'trial' round trips to Dover, before resuming scheduled sailings last night. The first sailing took place from Calais with a departure at 20.55 and a return from the UK port at 22.15.

Isle of Inisheer's resumption on the Strait of Dover service marks the first time since early January that Irish Ferries has operated to full capacity with three ferries, the others been the custom-built Isle of Inishmore and Isle of Innisfree. The former served the company's Irish Sea routes since 1997, while the latter ferry was acquired in 2021 and made a December debut at Dover that year.

Whereas the 'Inisheer' also of secondhand tonnage, had entered service during the Summer of last year.

The Isle of Inishmore was also off-service during January and February in Denmark at the Fayard shipyard to have an Exhaust Gas Cleaning Scrubber (EGCS) system installed on the company's cruiseferry that first served on the Dublin-Holyhead route.

Another Ireland-Wales role saw the ferry transfer to Rosslare-Pembroke Dock route (see 'Inishmore' 21st year coverage). This was followed by a move to Dover-Calais, Irish Ferries' significant first time entry on the UK-France market that began in June, 2021.

The Isle of Inishmore had previously called to the Danish shipyard as the ferry had undergone berthing related modifications to enable Irish Ferries launch their UK 'landbridge' service between Ireland and France, from where they also operate the direct Dublin-Cherbourg route.

As for the second Dover-Calais introduced ferry, Isle of Innisfree was out of action in early March due to an engine-room blaze that was put out by crew. There was no injury to personnel nor passengers, though the ferry was towed by tug to Calais which would lead to in-port repairs.

The disruption which caused cancelled sailings took place during a quiet period of the year leaving just the 'Inishmore' to soldier on as the sole ship serving the short-sea service.