The Government is expected to extend the Irish Naval Service humanitarian mission in the Mediterranean today as donations flood in for an aid convoy bound for Calais.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has asked the Taoiseach to extend the Irish Naval Service’s humanitarian mission in the Mediterranean into the winter months.

An Irish naval crew has rescued another 225 people trying to cross the Mediterranean.

Irish naval crews have rescued another 225 people trying to cross the Mediterranean.

The decision we are seemingly determined to make, is return to where we were, writes Gerard Howlin

The Defence Minister is preparing to extend the Irish Naval Service’s humanitarian mission in the Mediterranean beyond next month’s original deadline.

The LÉ Niamh, which rescued almost 400 migrants from the Mediterranean in one operation this week, has arrived in the Italian city of Palermo.

The recovery of the bodies of the victims of people smugglers (‘Packed in like sardines in a tin’, Irish Examiner, July 29) has underlined the need for our naval service to continue in the search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

If wind or rain had whipped up before the LÉ Niamh reached a wooden barge crammed with more than 500 migrants, the death toll onboard would probably have been far higher.

The number of migrants rescued by the Irish Naval Service has passed the 4,000 mark after LÉ Niamh crew rescued 358 people from a wooden barge.

Families are expected to crowd the quayside in Haulbowline next Friday to welcome home the 69-strong crew of LÉ Eithne after a rescue mission which saw them pluck 3,376 migrants from unseaworthy craft in the Mediterranean Sea.

The tired crew of LÉ Eithne could leave for home as early as this weekend after rescuing 3,376 migrants from the Mediterranean Sea.

A luxury yacht which was seized last September carrying €80m of cocaine is to be auctioned off by the State.

Three men from the north of England were arrested last night following the seizure of an estimated €88m of cocaine on a yacht during an operation which bears a striking resemblance to a drugs interception in 2008.

The West Cork coastline has long been a favourite drop-off point for drugs traffickers as they’ve seen it as an easy ‘back-door route’ into Britain.

A Spanish-registered fishing vessel has been detained by the Irish naval service just south of Union Hall in Co Cork.

The helm of a naval vessel was handed from one female captain to another yesterday, marking a first in Irish Navy history.

The man who broke a code which helped jail the British gangster who organised €500m drug shipment says this county “will be in grave danger of further large importation attempts” if there are any cuts to the Naval Service.

Exercises continuing off the Cork coast have demonstrated the professionalism of the naval services, Commodore Mark Mellett said yesterday.

Symbolic fires blazed on headlands and islands along the Cork coast last night marking a timeline of the Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage across the Atlantic a century ago.

EGYPTIANS and Irish stood together in sorrow on the quays at Union Hall in West Cork yesterday as the bodies of two missing men were brought ashore.

THERE were high hopes in Union Hall that the bodies of five men who have been missing since Sunday morning would be recovered from the wreckage of the Tit Bonhomme which is lodged in a rocky gully in the mouth of Glandore Bay.

NAVAL divers will make efforts again today to search the 21-metre, steel-hulled trawler the Tit Bonhomme, which is lying in a gully near Adam’s Island at the entrance to Glandore Harbour, in the hope the bodies of its five missing crew will be found on board.

Navy and Garda dive teams are assessing conditions in Union Hall harbour in West Cork, ahead of making a dive on the wreck of the Tit Bonhomme.

The Government has confirmed its pressing ahead with plans to spend €100m on two new naval vessels.

EVEN though Roberta O’Brien grew up almost 100 kilometres from the nearest coastline, it hasn’t stopped the Tipperary native from making history with the Irish Naval Service.

The Irish Navy’s eight ships will each burn the equivalent of €1m worth of oil over the next two years.

Five crew members have been airlifted to safety after their trawler, the Fiona Patricia, caught fire off the south coast.