3 New Navy Vessels for Irish Naval Service

Back in the late 90s a friend of mine took on an old Irish Light Ship that had served off Wexford and had it encased in concrete at Kilmore Quay and opened as a museum and tea shop.

The interior maintenance that was required just to keep the hull from rusting through became quickly prohibitive and it was given up for scrap after a few short years.

Unless Eithne went to some State owned entity (like Asgard) with very deep pockets, I can't see her lasting as a floating museum ship of any sort for longer than five years. I did think previously that it would be ideal to berth permanently in Cork or at Cobh, but the reality is she's just not of a scale or significance maintaining.

A Naval museum is a noble aim, but it should be based on land at Cobh or as part of the Haulbowline regeneration, with access from the public part of the island.

Eithne should be scrapped with Ciara and Orla.

Hard to argue with that. The original Bord Snip took care of any momentum of ambition in the mid 80s.

Still, hopefully we're in a new dawn of capability, all things considered, despite the current very serious manpower issues. Hopefully a new comprehensive package of remuneration and career opportunities is emerging and a whole new integrated active reserve component.

Hopefully.

New carpets and textiles.

So Sean, this is a ship, s.h.i.p. see?

People of Cobh may take issue with that. The Main Gate is the place for it.

Why dublin?

There are plans for an East Coast base. East Coast does not automatically mean dublin (though I know many in dublin believe nothing else exists outside the M50.) Wicklow, Arklow or Rosslare are equally viable, and probably far cheaper for find accommodation in. The M11 makes all of them readily accessable. If anything Dublin is the least suitable, being at the northern end of our territorial waters on the east coast, and having to contend with busy freight and passenger traffic to go anywhere.

Do the naval service work with the state research vessels , or irish lights vessel much ?

I've heard several times lately about the russian threats to cables and pipelines strategic to ireland lately ,

Usually these "threats" aren't in irish territorial waters , so we're not entitled to tell them to bugger off ..

And theyre often not militarized vessels either .. so shoot em ups unlikely..

I suppose what im asking is can the naval service request assistance, or use of state assets that'd be more suitable , for either operating underwater survey tools , or scanning pipelines ,

Short answer, no. While the Irish Lights vessel may have crew that were formerly in the NS at one time, and it assisted in the recovery of the Coast Guard S92 that crashed in Blacksod bay, they don't operate together day to day at an official level.

If the NS wanted to use the State's research vessels, it would have to book time, and pay the bill, same as anyone else who uses it for their research.