Corkman becomes second-in-command of the Naval Service

Captain Ken Minehane who has been appointed second-in-charge of the Naval Service

A Co. Corkman who played a pivotal role in a multi-national operation to save tens of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea has been appointed second-in-command of the Naval Service.

Ken Minehane, who joined the navy in 1988, has been promoted to the rank of Captain and will fill the role of Officer Commanding Naval Operations Command and second in command. 

After commanding five ships and gaining promotion through the ranks, in 2015 he got involved in Operation Pontus, an Irish and Italian mission to help save desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe, many of whom were being forced onto overcrowded 'coffin boats' in Libya by unscrupulous people traffickers.

Capt. Minehane helped train the crew of the first Irish ship to deploy that mission, LÉ Eithne. He joined the operation towards the end of the tour after it had saved more than 2,000 migrants from drowning. 

He used the knowledge gained by that operation when he transferred to the replacement, LÉ Niamh, off the coast of Gibraltar, and remained onboard that ship for her four-month tour of the Mediterranean.

During that time, the crew saved 4,600 helpless migrants but also witnessed the greatest tragedy seen by an Irish warship while on duty.

“A (migrant) boat capsized. We were informed there were 300 people lost. We recovered 25 bodies,” he said.

The vital knowledge he'd gained saw him appointed to a senior role as Force Protection Officer, based in Rome, with the EU-mounted Operation Sophia, the successor to Operation Pontus.

His job was to ensure that ships from 23 countries involved in that operation did not become a target of vengeful, well-armed people traffickers, to stifle supplies to them like fuel and rubber dinghies, in addition to upholding a UN weapons embargo on Libya.

“The Mediterranean operations were one of the most important parts of my career to date,” Capt. Minehane said.

It's unlikely growing up that he could have envisaged such a future. 

His parents, John and Eileen Minehane, were publicans in Bantry, but his father was also a fisherman and this is where he developed his love for the sea.

In 2005, his first overseas mission was to occur in Africa when he served as a logistics officer with the Irish contingent on a UN peace-enforcement force in Liberia.

However, it's at sea where he's achieved numerous milestones.

In 2010, he captained LÉ Niamh in the first Naval Service circumnavigation of South America when the ship was dispatched on a diplomatic mission marking the 200th Anniversary of Argentina's, Chile's and Mexico's independence from Spanish rule.

Capt. Minehane, 52, also oversaw the building of LÉ Samuel Beckett at Appledore, Devon, and was promoted to the rank of Commander in May 2014.