Displaying items by tag: Save Not Scrap

18th May 2022

LÉ Eithne: Plea to Convert Flagship into Cork Naval Museum, Rather than Selling Patrol Vessel for Scrap

Flagship LÉ Eithne: Although completely refurbished in 2017, LÉ Eithne has been laid up since mid-2019. However, the flagship LÉ Eithne was briefly brought back into service in 2020 to provide support to the HSE’s Covid-19 operations. Above LÉ Eithne in Dun Laoghaire, is the last naval vessel (AFLOAT adds of any ship) built in Ireland at VCD, Cork, and is seen at the East coast harbour which is the vessel's adopted homeport from where the Naval Service represented by the flagship, was in 2017 bestowed the ‘Freedom of Entry to the County’ by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. The Award in recognition of humanitarian service on behalf of the people of Ireland and EU acknowledged the duties undertaken by the Navy as part of Operation Pontus in the Mediterranean Sea to rescue refugee migrants.

In a last-ditch effort a campaign is underway to see the Naval Service flagship converted into a maritime museum, rather than sold for scrap.

Cork County Council is writing to the Minister for Defence and the secretary-general of the Department of Defence asking that LÉ Eithne be retained in Cork Harbour as a monument, rather than scrapped or sold.

Some of the main reasons for the request lie with LÉ Eithne’s significant history and association with the region. It was the last Naval Service ship built in Ireland, by the Verlome Cork Dockyard (V.C.D.) in Cobh in 1984, and the first to cross the Atlantic and visit South America.

The flagship and two ageing coastal patrol vessels, ‘Peacocks’ LÉ Orla and LÉ Ciara, are due to be decommissioned this year and rumours have circulated that all three will be sold for scrap metal value, rather than auctioned off.

The reasoning behind that theory is it might avoid further diplomatic embarrassment. The last to be auctioned ended up in the hands of a Libyan warlord, although through no fault of the Irish authorities.

A previous one was given free to Malta. However, it didn’t go down well there as former senior naval commanders on the Mediterranean Island described it as junk.

More from the Irish Examiner on this development to save the unique final Irish built ship whose adopted homeport is Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

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Competitions

The most significant events for the Half Ton Class has been the annual Half Ton Cup which was sailed under the IOR rules until 1993. More recently this has been replaced with the Half Ton Classics Cup. The venue of the event moved from continent to continent with over-representation on French or British ports. In later years the event is held biennially. Initially, it was proposed to hold events in Ireland, Britain and France by rotation. However, it was the Belgians who took the ball and ran with it. The Class is now managed from Belgium.