Mined and sunk in the Irish Sea – 2nd February 1940 five wounded, one died later The first Irish ship to be sunk in World War Two was the passenger ship Munster, which fell victim to a mine in Liverpool Bay on 7th February 1940. Built at Belfast in 1938 for the British and Irish… Continue reading Remember Munster
Author: ss
Remember: Clonlara (convoy OG71)
Sunk by torpedo from U-564 in North Atlantic, 22nd August 1941, convoy OG 71 The CLONARA had rescued thirteen men from the ALVA HMS CAMPION rescued thirteen survivors from the CLONARA (five from the ALVA and eight from the CLONARA) The six uninjured crew from CLONARA, were brought home by the CITY OF DUBLIN Carr,… Continue reading Remember: Clonlara (convoy OG71)
U-35 in Dingle during WW2
at Ballymore, three miles west of Dingle, 4 October 1939, U-35 landed 28 Greek sailors
Irish WWII Losses
How Ireland´s Mercantile Marine fared during WWII by Frank Forde, author of “The Long Watch”, the standard work on this subject
The First World War at sea off West Cork
The ferocity of the First World War evokes names like the Somme, Verdun, Paschendale and Mons and maybe Jutland or Coronel. It may therefore be a surprise to realise that the First World War equivalent of the battle of the Atlantic was fought vigorously of the Coast of West Cork. That such a significant front is all but forgotten is no surprise because the Irish rarely turned their eyes seaward except to judge the weather for agriculture.
HMS A5 (Forgotten Submariners) Lost at Cobh
on 13 February 1905. H M Submarine A5 was in the Haulbowline Naval Base, Queenstown,(now Cobh), Co Cork. There was an explosion while her petrol engine was being refueled. The dead were buried in the Old Church Cemetery. The five graves were neglected and overgrown with moss such that the headstones could not be read. In 1999, Chief Petty Officer Owen O’Keeffe of the Irish Naval Service initiated their restoration
The Flanders Flotilla and U-Boat Alley
The repeated claims that America declared against Germany during WW1 because her citizens and ships had been attacked by German U-boats is not accurate. Though the U-boats were restrained as a result of American diplomatic protests, America did not enter the war at that time and when they did, it was for different reasons. This has not been the first nor the last time that war was pursued for reasons that were not stated. This type of media management has of course reached heights of a totally new sophistication today.
Look-Out-Post 6 Howth Head
Firstly I’d like to look at Howth Head LOP in the general context of the Coast Watching Service and talk about what the service was and how the Howth post operated within that structure. Then I’d like to focus on the post in day-to-day operation during a particular period of the Second World War, a period usually ignored by historians of the Battle of the Atlantic.
G2, the coast-watching service and the Battle of the Atlantic
This paper is an early version of the introduction to the Guarding Neutral Ireland:
the coastwatching service and military intelligence 1939-45 (Four Courts Press, 2008)
Early Irish Free State Naval Activity
Eddie Bourke Dainty The early years of the Irish Free State from January 1922 were a time of turmoil after the war of Independence ceased with the Truce in July 1921. The British army commenced their withdrawal and the Free State Army developed from the Volunteers of the IRA. The seizure of the Four Courts… Continue reading Early Irish Free State Naval Activity