#NavalService - The Irish Times writes the Department of Defence denied that a Naval Service patrol ship was involved in any NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) exercise or operation during a manoeuvre with a Spanish frigate in the Mediterranean earlier (last week).

An exercise between Naval Service patrol ship LÉ James Joyce and a Spanish frigate Cristobal Colon prompted a tweet from the Spanish defence ministry with hashtag “We are NATO” last Monday.

The Department of Defence said the Cristobal Colon was providing support to “Operation Sophia”, the EU naval force mission in the Mediterranean, when it spent time with the LÉ James Joyce.

It confirmed that the Spanish frigate was transiting the Central Mediterranean en route to join up with the Nato-led “Operation Sea Guardian”.

For more on this story, the newspaper has a report here.