All aboard but Coveney misses the boat...

Time and tide wait for no man, as Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney should well know.

So there were some red faces at the start of a major naval festival yesterday as a ship carrying Minister for Defence Alan Shatter and other dignitaries pulled out of the deep water quay in Cobh without Mr Coveney.

He had been attending the launch of a new type of lifejacket in the nearby heritage centre and arrived at the quay just as the LÉ Eithne slipped her moorings on the way out to take a salute from other Irish naval vessels and warships from Britain, France, Belgium, and Russia.