The National Yacht Club held a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Republic of Ireland with a special flag hoisting ceremony at its East Pier clubhouseon Easter Monday.
The commemoration marked the occasion when the Tricolour was raised by Pierce Purcell, then Commodore of the NYC and Commander of the Maritime Inscription (now the Navy Reserve), on Easter Monday 1949.
Current members of the Navy Reserve hoisted the Tricolour at front of house at the event, attended by Pierce Purcell Jr.
As Afloat reported previously, on Easter Monday 1949, the Tricolour was raised by the then Officer in command of the Dun Laoghaire unit of “Maritime Inscription” and Commodore of the National Yacht Club Pierce Purcell.
And on Monday, after the hoisting of the Tricolour by Lieutenant Commander Stephen Murphy seventy years later, the important contribution of the “Maritime Inscription” in the “Emergency” 1939 – 1945 was revisited along with the part played by volunteer members of the NYC in that service.
In an event in the clubhouse after the flag hoisting, Commander Cormac Rynne, Commanding Officer of Naval H.Q. base at Halbowline and Commander of the Naval Reserve, presented the historical background to the “Maritime Inscription”, the Naval Service and the Navy Reserve.
Former National Yacht Club Commodore Ronan Beirne gave a resume of how the volunteers got involved, their training and duties until discharge in 1945 from conversations with the late Des Beirne & Harry Boyd.