Irish vessel makes history

SUNSET in Belfast port yesterday marked an historic occasion as the Tricolour and the Royal Navy’s White Ensign were lowered together.

The Irish Naval Service’s LE Eithne and Britain’s HMS Tyne both exchanged personnel for the ceremonial event as both fishery patrol vessels berthed side-by-side at Queen’s Quay in the heart of the northern capital.

The five-day Belfast engagement for the LE Eithne marked the first-ever visit to a Six Counties’ port by an Irish navy boat.

“We’ve regularly docked in British ports in England, Scotland and Wales,” said a naval spokesman, “but not previously in Northern Ireland.”

Irish naval chief Commodore Frank Lynch travelled to Belfast for a reception on the LE Eithne which welcomed aboard 240 local civic and political dignitaries.

The Eithne, the last vessel to be built in Cobh’s Verolme dockyard and the Royal Navy’s latest addition to the fleet, HMS Tyne, were both in Belfast for a Titanic commemoration event.

The naval ships’ companies under Commander Pat McNulty and his British counterpart Cmdr Craig Gilmour are scheduled to participate in a number of social engagements during their stay.