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THIS EVENING THE Irish naval vessel LÉ Niamh will be setting out on course for the Mediterranean.
The ship will continue the Irish presence in the region and replace the LÉ Eithne, which has been serving in the area for the past two months.
In this time it has rescued a total of 3,377 individuals from the waters between Sicily and Libya.
It has started its voyage back to Ireland and is due to arrive home some time next week.
Speaking ahead of the launch of LÉ Niamh’s journey this evening, defence minister Simon Coveney, said, “I had the opportunity of visiting LÉ Eithne last Tuesday. I conveyed to the personnel our deep appreciation of the outstanding manner in which they performed their duties on overseas service on behalf of the government and the people of Ireland.”
I am pleased to be here today to convey my appreciation to you, in advance of your deployment.
LÉ Niamh a crew of 55 Naval Service personnel and two medics from the Army Medical Corps and will be captained by Lieutenant Commander Daniel Wall.
The ship is expected to remain in the region until September, depending on the operational demands and requirements arising.
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Hope the guns on this one works, last one didn’t sink any smugglers boats.
If anyone deserves a bit of shore leave it’s the crew of the Eithne.
Indeed after a couple of months the wives and girlfriends will be getting restless for their partners return.
God be with the days when we used to do a twelve month tour of duty in far flung parts of the world without getting relieved, but then seamen were a tougher breed.
Better to send a ferry, no heroics, no press photos of “rescues” and no deaths at sea.
“It’s second ship”, they have more than two you know. Wouldn’t it be more correct to say “a second ship”
EU Directive 13b/12 Any Irish Naval vessels operating in the Mediterranean Sea shall prominently display the decal stating TAXI in 16 different languages.
Article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees:
1. No Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
2. The benefit of the present provision may not, however, be claimed by a refugee whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding as a danger to the security of the country in which he is, or who, having been convicted by a final judgment of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community of that country.
It’s about time we invaded someplace
Ireland sends it’s second ‘Ferry’ to the Mediterranean.
The ‘Defence’ Forces are the biggest people traffickers now in the Mediterranean.
Can you show your workings on that?
Enda has agreed to take 600 migrants to Ireland.
I doubt they “ask” him to do anything, they just tell him he’s taking them
In fairness, he said he’d take 300 so I think …..oh wait.
All aboard the LE Niamh Mediterranean cruise!!
We should have a quota like that all year round.
We ought take the 100 most dire cases from selected countries (only countries that are at war or recognized totalitarian states like NK, or the persons part of a minority that is actively in danger of death – no economic migration) and only those who can provide solid indisputable proof of their genuine circumstances. You stay in DP for food, sleep etc until you work into residency, and welfare you get ought be on a debit card with certain purchases locked out. One even minor offence and you’re deported and permanently blacklisted (there should be an EU wide black list in fact so we dont take others throwaways). Work only after your app is accepted under the same prevailing rates of pay as the Irish applicants.
Jack you are singly the most directionless comment maker I have ever seen on this….really disjointed.
Marky Mark= racist
And again Jack you come out with an utterly clueless unrelated comment on top of the fact you have now twice got my profile name wrong. Real loo laa are’nt ya
Mark Mark, have you still got that stutter?
600 too many. How many future islamic extremists within those 600. EU can fook off. Enda Kenny you can too, you can’t even look after your own people. These economic migrants will continue to come.
This is getting ridiculous , if someone rolls up their pants and goes for a paddle in Libya , they’re plucked from the sea but on a navy boat and brought to Europe
Let’s hope you never have to go through an event in Ireland where you’d feel safer floating on the open sea on a flimsy piece of wood than staying at home.
Smugglers dream, we’ll be knee deep in Cocaine in no time!
Did somebody call a taxi??
Love this, ‘second ship’! More like half the entire Irish navy is in the Med!
Add to that usually one ship is in some sort of repairs, that leaves just one ship. One. To patrol the entire island of Ireland.
Because if Russia sends an armada against us, having all of our ships patrolling the coast will protect us!
Yes, obviously because Russia is going to be invading Ireland. But more like the important duties of protection of Irish fisheries and providing customs duties. Not to mention the navy’s important roll from time to time in search and rescue missions. Other roles include sea patrol, surveillance, and smuggling prevention.
The Royal Navy would defend you guys.
You’re absolutely right, at eight ships the Naval Service is too small, eight was the minimum recommended by PWC before the extension of the EEZ. They suggested twelve as the correct number.
I hope you’ll be asking your TDs to support an increase in the defence budget to allow the NS the resources it needs, especially if the government wants it to take on the greater international role it can and should be taking on.
Irish defence spending is 0.39% of GDP, one of the lowest in the world and less than many EU countries with greater economic problems.
I’d be all in favour of more money for the navy. We should be protecting our waters. I just hope they’re not called the LE Mary, the LE Judy, the LE Barbara, and LE Cynthia.
there are seven ships in the irish navy
There are seven in service but the LÉ James Joyce will bring the number back to eight and the as yet unnamed (most likely WB Yeats) P63 will replace the last of the Emer class ships. There are three other ships, LÉ Eithne and the two Peacock class ships, that are already overdue for replacement.
Think you’ll find the naval service has 8 vessels…plenty of info online.
Last week three TD’s visited the ship in Malta for a bit of electioneering at the taxpayers expense. This could become a regular thing as we draw near to the next general election.
You think the Minister for Defence shouldn’t visit the navy?
Give them guns and send them back, their only bring terrorism to Europe
It’s like a Wildebeest walking into a Lion’s den.
Do wildebeests save drowning lions?
We need a more modern fleet of ships 10+, frigate class of ship not patrol boats we can make a real difference during these types of crisis. Well done Irish navy.
Nah. Id say the opposite. We’d be better off with more coastal patrol vessels. We dont need large frigates.
A modern frigate costs 10 times what a patrol vessel costs, €600m vs €60m. The latest German frigates are closer to €1bn.
What could be affordable and would expand the range of humanitarian and MOOTW missions the Naval Service could take part in is something like this http://products.damen.com/en/ranges/crossover
And Ireland will take over their share of immigrants from those it has saved in the med, in other words more cost to the tax paper…
Thanks E.U.
Serious question – why do all our ships have such pussy names?
Girls names??
Have you seen some of the mighty US Navy ship names? USS Ponce, USS Cowpens, USS Farragut, USS Harpers Ferry, USS Laboon, Momsen, Pinckney, Shoup, I think we’re doing ok.
The names of patrol vessels are female names from Irish mythology. I think they were meant to be non-controversial.
The newer ships are named for famous Irish writers. A decision made by Alan Shatter seemingly without any consultation.
I’d favour either geographical names, LÉ Shannon or LÉ Connacht for example or historical military/naval/republican figures LÉ Brian Ború or LÉ Markievicz. Maybe even LÉ Brown for the Irishman who founded the Argentinian Navy.
Serious question ,Why do so many on the journal have fake twitter accounts ?
Well two issues here. Firstly, Cian, the US navy can afford to have pussy names because it’s as scary as f*** so it doesn’t need to overcompensate like we do. Secondly, the names from Irish mythology were fine when everybody in Ireland had a nice Christian name like Mary and Kate, and the names sounded exotic. But since people have actually started calling their children these mythological names, they sound ridiculous for the names of boats.
Im not sure how you can say we are overcompensating. If our ships were named LE Dominant or similar you might have a point…
I’m saying they should be called things like that. The LE Badmotherfukker etc.
What age are you? 12?
I’m nearly 14.
Hah…
Could you lot not just wish them well and say well done to the crew coming home.
with all these ships away it’s a great time for drugs smugglers in ireland
You were never told about the Gardaí who sell it?
Good, one less ship to harass our fisherman
I thought they were all Spanish off the west thanks to the E.U.
We have a second ship??? Does this constitute a fleet?
JUST A PAIR OF FLEET…
more money for them.
We should all be very proud of our navy for save the lives of so many fellow human beings.
No RESPECT for the Irish Navy/Irish Defence Forces what so ever… Shame on the people who call themselves Irish
Why?
No ships left
This is madness. Why can’t the government deal with the many, many problems at home, instead of trying to solve the problems of the world.
Why is that? They’re only following orders and doing their jobs.
Fair play to our naval service in the med doing a fine job but looking for extra money is a little crazy?good accommodation , great food good working conditions, cigarettes at 18. 00 a carton alcohol at duty free prices . And not to forget tax free wages. a 2 month med cruise thrown in its a hard life being a sailor but it could be worse stuck down some smelly hold of a Irish trawler to see if he has extra cod on board seemingly it’s better to throw dead fish back into the sea
use that gun on them
We have 8 ships all of similiar size to the LE Niamh.
have a look at this photo here, it is from 2006 so since then at least 2 of the vessels in the photo have been replaced….
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=297549
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