First for Navy with overseas aid mission

History will be made this morning when the Naval Service will for the first time aid in an overseas humanitarian mission.

Sat, 16 May, 2015 - 01:00

Sean O’Riordan

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Defence Minister Simon Coveney, and other political and military dignitaries will gather at the Naval Service headquarters in Haulbowline, Co Cork, to mark the departure of LÉ Eithne and her 70-strong crew on a voyage to the Mediterranean to prevent migrants drowning.

The UN estimates 60,000 people have tried to cross the Mediterranean so far this year and nearly 2,000 have drowned.

LÉ Eithne will work with the Italian authorities to pick up migrants from North Africa who are being put into dangerously unseaworthy boats by people smugglers.

The vessel will swing into action when she arrives in the waters between Italy and Africa in a week’s time.

The mission got cabinet approval after Mr Coveney said it was incumbent on Ireland to help in the crisis and he likened the plight of the modern migrants to those who sailed out of this country in ‘coffin ships’ during the 18th and 19th centuries.

LÉ Eithne is being captained by Commander Pearse O’Donnell, who is very experienced in overseas missions having served with a UN observer mission in Western Sahara and with an EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Commander O’Donnell assumed command of LÉ Eithne last August, having previously captained the LÉ Aoife and LÉ Róisín and served as Commander of Fleet Operations.

While LÉ Eithne is making history by being the first Irish ship to become involved in a humanitarian mission, she is no stranger to lengthy journeys.

In 2006, she was sent to Buenos Aires to participate in commemorations honouring Admiral William Brown, who was born in Wexford.