An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 18 | by LT CDR CAOIMHíN MAC UNFRAIDH, NS PRESS OFFICER PHotoS by A/SEA DAVID JONES I n the 17th Century it became generally accepted that a nation had the right to exercise control over the waters that bordered it, origi- nally out to a distance of thee miles, roughly the maximum range of a canon at the time. Subsequent developments pushed territorial waters out to 12 nautical miles, coincidentally the range of a con- ventional 155mm howitzer. or perhaps it's no coincidence. Certainly, it was on the mind of oC LÉ Niamh in 2015 when he had to decide whether or not to bring his ship within artillery range of a hostile coast to effect a humanitarian rescue. the story is one worth record- ing in the current chapter of Defence Forces' overseas engagement. LÉ Niamh was the second NS ship dispatched to the Mediterranean as part of Ireland's response to the migrant crisis that had erupted on Europe's southern border. (LÉ Eithne had the honour of being the first, in May 2015, saving thousands of people before being relieved by LÉ Niamh in July.) With an AO between Libya and Sicily, the Irish vessels worked alongside the Italian naval mission, Mare Sicuro, and other organisations, as part of the practical response to the proposition that it was unacceptable to modern European democracies to have thousands of refugees drowning on their shores. LÉ Niamh entered a complex theatre. The newly established EU Naval Force Mediterranean was positioned to the northwest of Mare Sicuro, and NGOs, such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), had also deployed ships in response to the crisis. Libya was to the south, its heavily populat- ed coastal cities wracked by fighting, with competing governments, ISIS expanding its foothold around Sirte, and numerous militias holding sway throughout the country. Pre-mission intelligence had been unable to ascertain which faction had what equipment, but given an elevated threat assessment for coastal waters, it was decided that the 12nm limit of Libya's territorial waters would be the southern limit for Irish operations. It has been reported that Libyan maritime ele- ments were involved in people smuggling; ISIS were known to be operating a limited offshore presence; migrant smuggler craft mixed with fish- ing vessels; Italian navy helicop- ters flew busy matrices around the AO, which was also dissected by Russian cargo planes and Turkish war- ships; and fast boats zipped around the area, some- times Italian Special Forces, sometimes unknown. It was in this crowded environment, where the ship's bridge team faced a constant struggle to iden- tify such a range of contacts, that LÉ Niamh set to work rescuing hundreds of fright- ened, desperate people from unseaworthy craft, transferring them, under control of the Italian Marine Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), to ports in Sicily and the Ital- ian peninsula. LÉ Niamh never let her guard and the Soul of Modern Europe

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