Michael Kennedy, author of Guarding Neutral Ireland, discusses the role of the Look Out Posts, in this case, the LOP on Howth Head, in recording events in the Irish Sea during World War II, known as “The Emergency”.
The Flanders Flotilla and U-Boat Alley The repeated claims that America declared against Germany during WW1 because her citizens and ships had been attacked by German U-boats is not accurate. Though the U-boats were restrained as a result of American diplomatic protests, America did not enter the war at that time and when they did,…
This paper is an early version of the introduction to the Guarding Neutral Ireland: the
coastwatching service and military intelligence 1939-45 (Four Courts Press, 2008)
Eddie Bourke The early years of the Irish Free State from January 1922 were a time of turmoil after the war of Independence ceased with the Truce in July 1921. The British army commenced their withdrawal and the Free State Army developed from the Volunteers of the IRA. The seizure of the Four Courts in…
(Forgotten Submariners) Early in 1999, Chief Petty Officer Owen O’Keeffe of the Irish Naval Service was visiting Old Church Cemetery near Cobh, County Cork. The purpose of his visit was to do some research on U S Navy graves dating back to the First World War. In the course of his search for the…
IRISHMEN IN U.S. AND MARITIME HISTORY REMEMBERED Two Irishmen in American Maritime History were remembered in separate ceremonies in the United States during the Autumn of 1998, when Commodore John Barry from Wexford and John Philip Holland from Clare were honoured in late September and early October by the Maritime Institute of Ireland. Resolutions…
Ireland’s Close Encounter with German U-Boat By Denis Martin FTU At 4pm on the afternoon of Wednesday the 4th October 1939 the realities of World War 2 reached the shores of the Dingle Peninsula. The residents of Ballymore, a fishing village 3 miles west of Dingle, noticed a strange craft heading for the rock…
Seamen of Irish Birth and Descent in the Spanish Navy in North Africa. Years ago the Institute’s research department made a thorough examination at the Spanish Naval Archives (far inland in Cudad Real Province) to discover about exiles from Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries who joined the Spanish Navy. There was abundant…
The First World War at sea off West Cork Edward J Bourke The ferocity of the First World War evokes names like the Somme, Verdun, Paschendale and Mons and maybe Jutland or Coronel. It may therefore be a surprise to realise that the First World War equivalent of the battle of the Atlantic was fought…
