Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

A Belgian Navy frigate conducting exercises in the Irish Sea was tracked by Afloat days in advance of a visit to Dublin Port and in the run up to this week's Brexit Deal finally struck in Brussels, writes Jehan Ashmore.…

President of the Defence Forces representative body Pdforra has said conditions for members are so bad that 80 naval personnel are living on (ships), some of which were deemed to be unsuitable for accommodation when they were commissioned 35 years…

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said strengthening the Defence Forces (which includes the Naval Service) will take time and retaining personnel at present was a “real challenge”. However, he said he was confident “we are back on track” after military…

Ministers reports The Irish Examiner, have described comments by President Michael D Higgins that members of the Defence Forces should have sufficient incomes as “deeply unhelpful”. Mr Higgins’s comments on Wednesday night caused widespread surprise, anger, and bemusement in Government…

A Naval Service diver who was involved in migrant rescue in the Mediterranean is one of seven recipients of Defence Forces value awards conferred by President Michael D Higgins on Wednesday evening writes Lorna Siggins Able Mechanician Ryan O’Driscoll, originally…

The Irish Examiner writes, the number of recruits paying to get out of the Defence Forces before their training has even finished confirms claims the retention crisis can't be overcome by major recruitment drives alone. Figures obtained by Jack Chambers,…

A fishing vessel registered in France according to RTE News, has been detained off the Cork coast. The Naval Service vessel LÉ Niamh detained the boat (on Wednesday) and its crew around 150 nautical miles south west of Fastnet Rock. The…

The Naval Service denies any personnel on the LÉ Samuel Beckett were put in danger by the poor state of equipment used to raise and lower RIBs into the water, as The Irish Times reports. The statement followed an inspection…

In Irish waters a Portuguese-registered fishing vessel, reports The Irish Times, was detained by the Navy Service on Thursday. The Lé Samuel Beckett, a Naval Service patrol vessel, detained the Portuguese boat approximately 200 nautical miles south of Fastnet Rock,…

The Irish Defence Forces, reports Journal.ie, have detained a fishing vessel off the coast of Dublin (yesterday) for allegedly breaching fishing regulations. The vessel was stopped 20 nautical miles northeast of Howth in Co Dublin by the Naval Service Vessel…

The significant role played by the Irish Naval Service in the 1979 Fastnet Race Disaster has sometimes been overlooked in the dramatic images of helicopters and lifeboats in direct action writes W Nixon. But in fact the LE Deirdre under…

Only just 6.5% of personnel account for women in the Naval Service but for the first time in its history, three of its ships - a third of the fleet - are being captained by female Lieutenant Commanders. As the…

According to The Irish Times, the Naval Service is operating with about a third of the required number of personnel needed to safely maintain its weapons. There are currently only three armourers, also known as armament artificers, in the Naval…

At the Department of Defence, reports The Irish Times, they were unhappy with how the military responded to media queries about two Naval Service ships being taken out of service, internal documents show. An announcement last June that the LÉ…

A Naval Service ship on Mediterranean rescue several years ago was unable to recover a migrant’s body that it had located in the water for several hours until it could confirm which EU state would accept it, a former mission…

Italian tallship Amerigo Vespucci, once described by US sailors as the most beautiful in the world, (on Monday) docked at Dublin Port. As The Irish Times reported, Amerigo Vespucci is a training vessel for Italian Navy cadets who sail for…