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Navigator S/Lt Tadhg Clarke
Lt Alan Flynn (NS) checks the charts
Later the ship's crew gave us a fire-fighting demonstration
and a display of a boarding party's equipment and tactics.
Unfortunately my sea legs went missing for parts of the
visit, much to the amusement of my fellow visitors and
the ship's crew, but during those absent times I at least
had the pleasure of visiting many of the ship's 'heads' and
I felt I did my bit to help keep them clean after use.
Although we only spent a few hours on board, I think our
short visit still gave me a good understanding of what it
takes to be a member of the Naval Service. They truly are a
dedicated team of hard-working professionals; even seasick
sailors still have to get on with the job.
The Naval Service is acknowledged, nationally and
internationally, as a flexible, impartial, multi-skilled, well
trained, highly motivated, professional maritime service
that is responsive to the needs of the nation. The primary
role of the Naval Service is the maintenance of our maritime sovereignty by the delivery of operational patrols, over
which Ireland claims jurisdiction by establishing a physical
presence at sea. This includes deterring intrusive or aggressive acts, conducting maritime surveillance, maintaining an
armed naval presence, ensuring right of passage, protecting
our fisheries and other marine assets, and combating illegal
drug and weapons smuggling. The Naval Service must also
be capable of supporting army operations through sea-lift
and close naval support.
In 2012 the Naval Service patrolled 132,000 sq miles of
sea (approx four times the land mass of Ireland, representing 15% of Europe's fisheries) during their 1,480 patrol
days. They boarded and inspected 1,325 fishing vessels
from Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany,
Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Lithuania, Belgium, Portugal, Denmark and the Faroes. 40 fishing vessels from
Ireland, UK, Spain, France and Lithuania were warned for
53 infringements and they made 20 detentions for alleged
infringements of fishing
regulations. The Naval Service Diving Section is the
states primary dive agents
and was called out on 79
operations. They were involved in 14 separate Search
and Recovery operations
following requests from the
Coastguard and An Garda
Síochána lasting 49 days.
All of the Naval Service
operates 24 hours per
day, 365 days a year. It is
a testament to the men
and women of the Naval
Service that this feat is
achieved with a small fleet
of eight ships and only
1,094 personnel. To find
out more about the Naval
Service visit: www.military.ie/naval-service/
www.military.ie the defence forces magazine
