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The Naval Forces of the Irish State, 1922- 1977. by Padhraic Ó Confhaola THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH Supervisor of Research: Dr. Ian Speller Month and Year of Submission: October 2009 Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Abbreviations ii Introduction iii 1. The Civil War 1 2. Between the Wars 31 3. The Emergency 50 4. The Foundation of the Service 81 5. A False Dawn 99 6. The Decline of the Service 114 7. EEC Accession and the Revival of the Service 128 8. Conclusions 141 Bibliography 148 Acknowledgements My deepest thanks to my parents, Seamus and Máire, and my sisters, Máire-Aine and Kate. Their unfailing support and encouragement has been greatly appreciated. Grá agus Buíochas. My sincerest thanks must go to my supervisor, Dr. Ian Speller, for his assistance in this most trying of tasks and providing me with ample opportunities to speak on this topic to the unwitting victims of the Naval Cadet courses at NUI, Maynooth. I would also extend my gratitude to Professor R.V. Comerford and the Department of Modern History for granting me the opportunity to undertake this project. My appreciation goes to Commandant Victor Laing and the staff of the Irish Military Archives who went to some trouble in allowing me access to the files of the Naval Service and permitting me to reproduce images from their collections within this work. The staff of the Irish National Archives and their counter-parts in the British National Archives deserve mention for their efforts to aid me in trawling through their repositories. I must express my gratitude to those organisations which granted me the opportunity to present on my topic. These include the Irish Military History Society, the Department of Modern History at NUIM, the New Researchers in Maritime History Conference and the Irish History Student's Association. I would also like to thank the many students of the Naval Service's Cadet Course who have been most instructive in highlighting areas of interest. I would also like to express my gratitude to Captains Frank Troy and Patrick O'Donnell along with Daire Bruncardi for their assistance. List of Abbreviations ADM Admiralty ASDIC Sonar B.N.A. British National Archives CAB Cabinet Secretary CMB Coastal motor boat CMS Coastal and Marine Service CPA Competent Port Authority CO Commanding officer DEFE Defence Ministry DFA Department of Foreign Affairs EEC European Economic Community EU European Union FCA Forsa Cosanta Áitíuil FIN Department of Finance GHQ General Headquarters GPO General Post Office HMS Her/His Majesty‟s Ship HO Home Office I.M.A. Irish Military Archives IRA Irish Republican Army JUS Department of Justice LE Long Eireannach (Irish Ship) M-L Motor launch MTB Motor torpedo boat MRCC Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre N.A.I. Irish National Archives NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NS Naval Service OCNS Officer Commanding Naval Service PREM Prime Minister's Office RAF Royal Air Force RN Royal Navy RNLI Royal National Lifeboat Institution TAOIS Department of the Taoiseach U.C.D.A. University College Dublin Archives A history of the naval forces of the Irish State: 1922-77 Introduction This thesis seeks to examine the history of the naval forces of the Irish state since its independence and identify those factors, events and decisions which shaped their development while also providing an overview of the naval history of the state. Since the foundation of the Irish Free State and the civil war which marked its birth, the Irish state has established several naval forces, generally in times of grave national emergency but little of their history is known to the wider public. Although most are aware of the Irish Naval Service, which came into being after the Second World War, few know of its predecessors. The Coastwatching and Marine Service, later to become the Marine Service, provided seaward defence during the Emergency, the uniquely Irish euphemism for the Second World War. Its many constituent parts were responsible for the patrolling of Irish territorial waters, minesweeping operations and the surveillance of shipping around the Irish coast and those merchant ships which entered Irish ports. Its establishment in 1939 marked the end of a period during which the state maintained no naval forces. The Coastal and Marine Service, distinct from the aforementioned Coastwatching and Marine Service, represented the naval forces of the Irish Free State, towards the end and immediately after the Civil War; it was closely involved with the guerrilla phase of the conflict and the anti-smuggling patrols which followed. During the early months of the Civil war, a naval force was established to aid in the fighting, although it was a nameless and rather unofficial organisation, it conducted amphibious landings and provided vital assistance to the National Army in their campaign to recapture those areas beyond the control of the Provisional Government. The structure of the thesis follows that of the rise and fall of the various services. Each chapter refers to a distinct period which differs from that which came prior and followed. The Civil War, inter-war years and the Emergency are clearly differentiated by the presence of the Coastal and Marine Service, no formal naval force and the Marine Service, respectively and thus provide the first three chapters of this work. The division of the history of the Naval Service into four chapters requires a brief explanation. The service's foundation represented a time of great progress and rapid expansion and is covered by the fourth chapter. The fifth chapter details the stable maintenance of the service during the 1950s. The 1960s see a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of the service and this time of regression is detailed in the sixth chapter. The seventh and final chapter encompasses the 1970s when the service began to once again expand and prosper. The naval history of the Irish state is an often forgotten element of Irish historiography and this lack of attention may have a historical basis. The land question has always been of far greater interest to the Irish, both prior to independence and since. As a largely rural entity, land was wealth and, to nationalists, it represented the Irish birthright. The sea was often seen as the domain of the British, an assumption aided by the fact that due to the overwhelming supremacy of the Royal Navy the sea was for all intents and purposes, British territory, and thus maritime issues were irrelevant to the struggle within Ireland. The focus was generally inward and this continued into the early years of independence. When Irish military history is examined, the situation is little better, the naval history of the Irish state is a gravely under-researched area. As the staples of Irish military history generally encompass the War of Independence, Irish peacekeeping deployments on UN operations and the lives of Irishmen who achieved high ranks in foreign forces other than those of the United Kingdom, it can been seen that the field lies outside the traditional comfort zone of Irish history. Hanley's work of reference, a guide to Irish military heritage, has a relatively modern bibliography which clarifies this. There are seven works listed which deal with air crashes and the activities of the Air Corps in Ireland during the Emergency but only one with a maritime connection, and that studies the history of the Irish mercantile marine during the war. Naval history as a discipline in Ireland has been marked by a focus on Irishmen abroad. In fact, it would be fair to assume that more Irish people would recognise the name of Admiral William Brown, the Wexford-born founder of the Argentinean Navy than could name a vessel of the Irish Naval Service. Although there is a surplus of British writers detailing the exploits of the Royal Navy, few detail the existence of the South Irish Flotilla operating from the Treaty Ports in the inter-war period. Indeed, Stephen's Roskill's Naval policy between the wars makes no mention of their activities. Secondary sources on the subject are quite limited and only two general surveys on the subject are extant. These are Aidan McIvor's A history of the Irish Naval Service and Tom McGinty's The Irish Navy: A story of courage and tenacity. In the former case, the book draws on the primary sources to a lesser degree but does not go into any real detail as to the intentions or motivations of the actors which shaped the services. It provides a broad outline of the history of the service which is sufficient for the non-academic audience. But the tendency to pass over events without in-depth analysis is not in keeping with the historical tradition. McGinty's book although making superior use of the primary source material is overly reliant on anecdotal evidence and it appears that the author consciously avoided publishing any information in the source documents which would reflect badly on the service. Instead a preference is shown to lay the blame for any such unpleasantness at the feet of nameless Department of Finance officials. In some cases, such information is simply omitted. This overtly admiring approach, while understandable with regards to the need to maintain cordial relations with the personnel he sought to interview, reduces his work's historical value. Aside from the afore- mentioned problems with sources within the Republic, both works suffer from their failure to examine the British sources which in many cases provide a useful alternative viewpoint and in some matters directly contradict the Irish sources. It also results in the understating of British influence on the development of the services.

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