Displaying items by tag: Staff return

10th February 2021

Brexit Agricultural Staff Checks Resume at Northern Ireland Ports

Decision to resume physical inspections of animal-based products in Belfast and Larne follows a threat assessment provided by the PSNI

Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture staff which were withdrawn from Brexit checks at two ports because of claims of threats last week return to work today.

According to RTE News, the decision to resume physical inspections of animal-based products in Belfast and Larne follows a threat assessment provided by police.

The checks were suspended on 1 February after threatening graffiti appeared in a number of loyalist areas warning that port staff could be "targets".

It was claimed that staff were being threatened by unspecified opponents of the Northern Ireland Protocol (see: related Article 16) which has resulted in inspections on some products arriving from Great Britain.

Many unionists and loyalists view this Irish Sea border as a threat to Northern Ireland’s constitutional position within the UK.

More here on this story.

Published in Ports & Shipping

Tagged under

About Conor O'Brien, Irish Circumnavigator

In 1923-25, Conor O'Brien became the first amateur skipper to circle the world south of the Great Capes. O'Brien's boat Saoirse was reputedly the first small boat (42-foot, 13 metres long) to sail around the world since Joshua Slocum completed his voyage in the 'Spray' during 1895 to 1898. It is a journey that O' Brien documented in his book Across Three Oceans. O'Brien's voyage began and ended at the Port of Foynes, County Limerick, Ireland, where he lived.

Saoirse, under O'Brien's command and with three crew, was the first yacht to circumnavigate the world by way of the three great capes: Cape Horn, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Leeuwin; and was the first boat flying the Irish tri-colour to enter many of the world's ports and harbours. He ran down his easting in the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties between the years 1923 to 1925.

Up until O'Brien's circumnavigation, this route was the preserve of square-rigged grain ships taking part in the grain race from Australia to England via Cape Horn (also known as the clipper route).

At a Glance - Conor O'Brien's Circumnavigation

In June 1923, Limerick man Conor O’Brien set off on his yacht, the Saoirse — named after the then newly created Irish Free State — on the two-year voyage from Dun Laoghaire Harbour that was to make him the first Irish amateur to sail around the world.

June 1923 - Saoirse’s arrival in Madeira after her maiden passage out from Dublin Bay

2nd December 1924 - Saoirse crossed the longitude of Cape Horn

June 20th 1925 - O’Brien’s return to Dun Laoghaire Harbour