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Displaying items by tag: Irish Coast Guard

#Coastguard - A Limavady councillor says two men rescued yesterday from the snow-covered Benevenagh Mountain should be billed for the cost of their "completely idiotic" escapade.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the Irish Coast Guard's Sligo-based Rescue 118 helicopter was involved in the major operation to retrieve the two men who became stuck while climbing a snow gully.

It also emerged that a PSNI search and rescue team had to be airlifted to the site by an Army Air Corps helicopter that had been involved in distributing animal food relief to farmers badly affected by the recent poor weather.

Limavady councillor Edwin Stevenson, who is also a farmer, said: "I am at an absolute loss as to why anyone would decide to climb Benevenagh in these conditions and can only describe the actions of these two men as completely idiotic."

He suggested that the NI Executive should consider "billing people who carelessly risk not just their own lives, but also the lives of the emergency services who invariably end up having to dedicate time and energy rescuing them".

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastguard

#RNLI - Kilrush RNLI launched twice on Tuesday 19 March to a reported flare or red smoke sighted off the coast on the River Shannon.

On both launches at 12.15pm and later at 9.27pm, both crews quickly assembled and set off to the locations along the river outlined by Valentia Coast Guard. 



On the first callout, the volunteer lifeboat crew searched from Querrin Point to Cappa village following accounts from the public that a small aircraft had been seen aflame while on approach.

Shannon helicopter and crews from the Kilkee and Mallow coastguard who were involved with another incident in Ballybunnion, crossed the waters and joined in the search.



After two-and-a-half hours the search was stood down as the Aviation Department stated there were no aircrafts in the region. The conclusion thus far is that the object seen was a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere. 



Shortly before 9.30pm, the inshore crew was paged again by Valentia Coast Guard to launch in response to members of the public who saw flares in the Kilrush area. 

The lifeboat launched and after an hour was stood down as there was no evidence along the shore from Cappa to the Moneypoint area. The unit of the Kilkee Coast Guard also carried out an intense shore search.


Kilrush RNLI helm and volunteer lifeboat press officer Pauline Dunleavy praised the members of the public who put these calls into action, even though in this case they turned out to be false alarms.

"We would urge anyone who does see anything suspicious out on the water to dial 999 without delay," she said. "It could be the reason a life was saved."

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

#News - TheJournal.ie is reporting news of the tragic drowning of a man and a young child off West Cork in the early hours of this morning (6 March).

The bodies of the man and the three-year-old girl were recovered by emergency teams after the Goleen unit of the Irish Coast Guard was tasked to the area following a missing person's report.

Coastguard volunteers found the child on the beach but attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful. The body of the man was later discovered in the shallows by the Baltimore RNLI lifeboat.

It's being suspected that the man and the young child entered the water.

TheJournal.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in News Update

#GhostShip - The Irish Coast Guard is on alert after indications that the missing 'ghost ship' MV Lyubov Orlova may have sunk in the Atlantic as it drifted towards Ireland's coast.

RTÉ News reports that an emergency transponder signal on the vessel that only activates on contact with water was picked up by coastguard monitors last week.

No sign of the ship was detected in satellite images of the area some 1,700km west of Valentia where the signal originated, leading to speculation that the ship has sunk.

But the possibility that the signal device was washed overboard cannot be ruled out.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the MV Lyubov Orlova was being transported from Canada to the Caribbean for scrapping in late January when it broke free of its tow-line and went adrift in the Atlantic in the general direction of Europe.

With no lights and its Automatic Identification System (AIS) switched off, it could not be located by conventional means - leading the Irish Coast Guard to collaborate with marine surveillance expert Guy Thomas on his new Global Maritime Awareness system in the hopes of detecting the vessel as it approached Irish waters.

The MV Lyubov Orlova is the sister ship of the polar cruiser Clipper Adventurer, the first ever cruise liner to visit Drogheda Port when it entered the mouth of the Boyne last summer.

Published in Ports & Shipping

#RNLI - Kilrush RNLI launched on Thursday afternoon (21 February) after pagers were set off by Valentia Coast Guard to the Foynes area, where it was reported that a boat had lost engine power with five people on board.

Within minutes the crew assembled and set out to the location to investigate. Within 25 minutes they located the vessel and quickly set up a long tow. Tides were running and weather conditions were reaching force 7 to 8.

For their safety the five men were taken on board the lifeboat, while a lifeboat crew member was transferred onto the casualty vessel to oversee the tow. On establishing that the men were fine, the lifeboat proceeded to Tarbert Pier. At this stage the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115 from Shannon was also on scene.

Within an hour the Kilrush RNLI lifeboat reached Tarbert Pier, where the lifeboat crew assisted the men in tying up their vessel.

Lifeboat helm Tom Blunnie praised the work of his crewmen in this rescue, stating that “under such conditions it’s great to know that our training pays off when calls like this occur.”

The crew on the day were helm Tom Blunnie, Pauline Dunleavy, Fintan Keating and Charlie Glynn.

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

#GhostShip - The missing 'ghost ship' MV Lyubov Orlova that has been adrift in the North Atlantic since the end of January has finally been located - some 2,400 off the West of Ireland.

US technology site Gizmodo reports on the discovery via the daily memorandum of the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which creates maps for top-secret military and civilian use.

It's not clear by what means the vessel was detected, as it has no lights and its Automatic Identification System (AIS) is switched off.

But it may be the result of efforts made by marine surveillance expert Guy Thomas, who has been working in collaboration with the Irish Coast Guard on a new system of marine monitoring called Global Maritime Awareness.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Thomas was contacted by Irish Coast Guard director Chris Reynolds amid concerns that the MV Lyubov Orlova might suddenly appear in Irish waters and become a burden on the State.

Responsibility for the vessel has already been disavowed by the Canadian authorities after the vessel, which was being towed from Canada to the Caribbean for scrapping, broke loose from its cabling.

Current information on the ghost ship's position indicates that it is being carried by Atlantic currents towards Europe.

Published in News Update

#RNLI - Skerries RNLI went to the assistance of two people whose powerboat got into difficulty off the Balbriggan coast in north Co Dublin yesterday.

Shortly after 6pm last night (Tuesday 19 February) the station’s volunteer lifeboat crew was requested to launch after the alarm was raised by gardaí that a 4-metre speed boat was in difficulty just off Hampton Cove in Balbriggan.


The boat, which was approximately three miles out from Skerries, had fouled its propeller.

Weather conditions at the time were described as cold and dusk was settling into dark.

The 
Skerries RNLI crew put to sea accompanied in the air by the Irish Coast Guard helicopter, which had been on exercise locally.

Arriving on scene, it became apparent that the two people on board had managed to paddle their boat safely to the shoreline. The 
Skerries lifeboat crew proceeded to tow the speedboat back safely to Balbriggan Harbour.

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

#Coastguard - The Irish Coast Guard is collaborating on a new system of marine monitoring in the hopes of detecting a dead ship that may threaten to run aground on Ireland's shores.

The Newfoundland Shipping News blog details how the MV Lyubov Orlova, adrift somewhere in the North Atlantic, is being used to test the capabilities of a new system called Global Maritime Awareness.

The system is based on the idea that if the world's top satellite tracking technologies could be banded together, it could establish a much more comprehensive monitoring system for the marine environment.

Marine surveillance expert Guy Thomas, who devised the concept, said he had the idea that if a receiver akin to that used in the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for ship tracking and collision avoidance was put on a satellite in orbit, "you would now have the international identification system for ships that was lacking".

That was done, and a second accompanying system was added that provides radar information from space. The Global Maritime Awareness system combines those with detailed satellite imagery, and Long Range Identification and Tracking {LRIT) technology whereby ships can verify themselves to others and the systems tracking them.

Thomas says these four satellite systems working in tandem make for "a very effective tool in monitoring marine environments for illegal activity".

But it can also be used to prevent potential environmental catastrophes - which is where the MV Lyubov Orlova comes in.

The Irish Coast Guard's director Chris Reynolds contacted Thomas with its concerns that the dead ship might drift into Irish waters and become a burden on the State. Thomas suggested using his system to find it, almost like an ocean-wide version of the game Battleships: even when a ship isn't sending any signals, it can still be tracked, just by looking for ships that aren't transcending through AIS.

Thomas and the Irish Coast Guard are currently working hard at this, crossing off vessels that are communicating through satellite systems till they can narrow it down to the one they're looking for. And they may now have a hit south-southeast of Greenland, although it will be some days before they can confirm.

Newfoundland Shipping News has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Coastguard

#Coastguard - The Irish Times reports that a fisherman has died after sustaining head injuries in an incident off the Old Head of Kinsale last night.

The man, one of three crew on the West Cork-based fishing trawler Liberty, is believed to have died from his injuries on board the vessel.

According to TheJournal.ie, the Courtmacsherry RNLI lifeboat and Irish Coast Guard helicopters from Shannon (Rescue 115) and Waterford (Rescue 117) were all scrambled to the scene.

The deceased was airlifted by Rescue 117 to Cork for transfer to hospital, while the remaining crew returned to Kinsale this morning with the lifeboat crew.

It is thought that the accident involved trawling wires on board the fishing boat.

Published in Coastguard

#Coastguard - The Irish Coast Guard's Rescue 115 helicopter was tasked overnight to search for a missing Spanish fisherman who fell overboard from his fishing trawler off the southwest coast in the early hours of this morning.

98FM is reporting the latest news on this incident, saying that the man went into the sea some 25 miles off Mizen Head.

The alarm was raised around 4am and the coastguard station at Valentia is co-ordinating the search and rescue effort, with RNLI lifeboats from Baltimore and Castletownbere in West Cork assisting.

Published in Coastguard
Page 27 of 38

Port of Cork Information

The Port of Cork is the key seaport in the south of Ireland and is one of only two Irish ports which service the requirements of all six shipping modes i.e., Lift-on Lift-off, Roll-on Roll-off, Liquid Bulk, Dry Bulk, Break Bulk and Cruise. Due to its favourable location on the south coast of Ireland and its modern deep-water facilities, the Port of Cork is ideally positioned for additional European trading as well as for yet unexploited direct deep-sea shipping services.

The Port of Cork is investing €80 million in a container terminal development in Ringaskiddy. The Cork Container Terminal will initially offer a 360-metre quay with 13-metre depth alongside and will enable larger ships to berth in the port. The development also includes the construction of a 13.5-hectare terminal and associated buildings as well as two ship to shore gantry cranes and container handling equipment.

The development of new container handling facilities at Ringaskiddy was identified in the Port of Cork’s Strategic Development Plan in 2010. It will accommodate current and future container shipping which can be serviced by modern and efficient cargo handling equipment with innovative terminal operating and vehicle booking systems. The Port of Cork anticipates that Cork Container Terminal will be operational in 2020.

The Port of Cork is the key seaport in the south of Ireland and is one of just two Irish ports which service the requirements of all shipping modes.

The Port of Cork also controls Bantry Bay Port Company and employs 150 people across all locations.

A European Designated Core Port and a Tier 1 Port of National Significance, Port of Cork’s reputation for quality service, including prompt and efficient vessel turnaround as well as the company’s investment in future growth, ensures its position as a vital link in the global supply chain.

The port has made impressive strides in recent decades, most recently with the construction of the new €80m Cork Container Terminal in Ringaskiddy which will facilitate the natural progression of the move from a river port to a deepwater port in order to future proof the Port
of Cork. This state-of-the-art terminal which will open in 2020 will be capable of berthing the largest container ships currently calling to Ireland.

The Port of Cork Company is a commercial semi-state company responsible for the commercial running of the harbour as well as responsibility for navigation and berthage in the port.  The Port is the main port serving the South of Ireland, County Cork and Cork City. 

Types of Shipping Using Port of Cork

The Port offers all six shipping modes from Lift-on Lift-off, Roll-on Roll-off, Liquid Bulk, Dry Bulk, Break Bulk and Cruise liner traffic.

Port of Cork Growth

The port has made impressive strides in recent decades. Since 2000, the Port of Cork has invested €72 million in improving Port infrastructure and facilities. Due to its favourable location and its modern deepwater facilities, the Port is ideally positioned for additional European trading as well as for yet unexploited direct deep-sea shipping services. A well-developed road infrastructure eases the flow of traffic from and to the port. The Port of Cork’s growing reputation for quality service, including prompt and efficient vessel turnaround, ensures its position as a vital link in the global supply chain. The Port of Cork Company turnover in 2018 amounted to €35.4 million, an increase of €3.9 million from €31.5 million in 2017. The combined traffic of both the Ports of Cork and Bantry increased to 10.66 million tonnes in 2018 up from 10.3 million tonnes in 2017.

History of Port of Cork

Famous at the last port of call of the Titanic, these medieval navigation and port facilities of the city and harbour were historically managed by the Cork Harbour Commissioners. Founded in 1814, the Cork Harbour Commissioners moved to the Custom House in 1904.  Following the implementation of the 1996 Harbours Act, by March 1997 all assets of the Commissioners were transferred to the Port of Cork Company.

Commercial Traffic at Port of Cork

Vessels up to 90,000 tonnes deadweight (DWT) are capable of coming through entrance to Cork Harbour. As the shipping channels get shallower the farther inland one travels, access becomes constricted, and only vessels up to 60,000 DWT can sail above Cobh. The Port of Cork provides pilotage and towage facilities for vessels entering Cork Harbour. All vessels accessing the quays in Cork City must be piloted and all vessels exceeding 130 metres in length must be piloted once they pass within 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km) of the harbour entrance.

Berthing Facilities in Cork Harbour

The Port of Cork has berthing facilities at Cork City, Tivoli, Cobh and Ringaskiddy. The facilities in Cork City are primarily used for grain and oil transport. Tivoli provides container handling, facilities for oil, livestock and ore and a roll on-roll off (Ro-Ro) ramp. Prior to the opening of Ringaskiddy Ferry Port, car ferries sailed from here; now, the Ro-Ro ramp is used by companies importing cars into Ireland. In addition to the ferry terminal, Ringaskiddy has a deep water port.

Port of Cork Development Plans

2020 will be a significant year for the Port of Cork as it prepares to complete and open the €86 million Cork Container Terminal development in Ringaskiddy.

Once operational the new terminal will enable the port to handle up to 450,000 TEU per annum. Port of Cork already possess significant natural depth in Cork harbour, and the work in Ringaskiddy Port will enable the Port of Cork to accommodate vessels of 5500 to 6000 TEU, which will provide a great deal of additional potential for increasing container traffic.

It follows a previous plan hatched in 2006 as the port operated at full capacity the Port drew up plans for a new container facility at Ringaskiddy. This was the subject of major objections and after an Oral Planning Hearing was held in 2008 the Irish planning board Bord Pleanala rejected the plan due to inadequate rail and road links at the location.  

Further notable sustainability projects also include:

  • The Port of Cork have invested in 2 x STS cranes – Type single lift, Model P (148) L, (WS) Super. These cranes contain the most modern and energy-efficient control and monitoring systems currently available on the market and include an LED floodlight system equipped with software to facilitate remote diagnostics, a Crane Management System (CMS) and an energy chain supply on both cranes replacing the previous preferred festoon cabling installation.
  • The Port of Cork has installed High Mast Lighting Voltage Control Units at its two main cargo handling locations – Tivoli Industrial & Dock Estate and Ringaskiddy Deep-water & Ferry Terminals. This investment has led to more efficient energy use and reduced risk of light pollution. The lights can also be controlled remotely.
  • The Port of Cork’s largest electrical consumer at Tivoli Container Terminal is the handling and storage of refrigerated containers. Local data loggers were used to assess energy consumption. This provided timely intervention regarding Power Factor Correction Bank efficiency on our STS (Ship to Shore) Cranes and Substations, allowing for reduced mains demand and reducing wattless energy losses along with excess charges. The information gathered has helped us to design and build a reefer storage facility with energy management and remote monitoring included.

Bantry Port

In 2017 Bantry Bay Port Company completed a significant investment of €8.5 million in the Bantry Inner Harbour development. The development consisted of a leisure marina, widening of the town pier, dredging of the inner harbour and creation of a foreshore amenity space.

Port of Cork Cruise Liner Traffic

2019 was a record cruise season for the Port of Cork with 100 cruise liners visiting. In total over 243,000 passengers and crew visited the region with many passengers visiting Cork for the first time.

Also in 2019, the Port of Cork's Cruise line berth in Cobh was recognised as one of the best cruise destinations in the world, winning in the Top-Rated British Isles & Western Europe Cruise Destination category. 

There has been an increase in cruise ship visits to Cork Harbour in the early 21st century, with 53 such ships visiting the port in 2011, increasing to approximately 100 cruise ship visits by 2019.

These cruise ships berth at the Port of Cork's deepwater quay in Cobh, which is Ireland's only dedicated berth for cruise ships.

Passenger Ferries

Operating since the late 1970s, Brittany Ferries runs a ferry service to Roscoff in France. This operates between April and November from the Ro-Ro facilities at Ringaskiddy. Previous ferry services ran to Swansea in Wales and Santander in Spain. The former, the Swansea Cork ferry, ran initially between 1987 and 2006 and also briefly between 2010 and 2012.

The latter, a Brittany Ferries Cork–Santander service, started in 2018 but was cancelled in early 2020.

Marine Leisure

The Port of Cork has a strategy that aims to promote the harbour also as a leisure amenity. Cork’s superb natural harbour is a great place to enjoy all types of marine leisure pursuits. With lots of sailing and rowing clubs dotted throughout the harbour, excellent fishing and picturesque harbour-side paths for walking, running or cycling, there is something for everyone to enjoy in and around Cork harbour. The Port is actively involved with the promotion of Cork Harbour's annual Festival. The oldest sailing club in the world, founded in 1720, is the Royal Cork Yacht Club is located at Crosshaven in the harbour, proof positive, says the Port, that the people of Cork, and its visitors, have been enjoying this vast natural leisure resource for centuries. 

Port of Cork Executives

  • Chairman: John Mullins
  • Chief Executive: Brendan Keating
  • Secretary/Chief Finance Officer: Donal Crowley
  • Harbour Master and Chief Operations Officer: Capt. Paul O'Regan
  • Port Engineering Manager: Henry Kingston
  • Chief Commercial Officer: Conor Mowlds
  • Head of Human Resources: Peter O'Shaughnessy