Remember
These web pages are dedicated to the memory of Ireland’s War-time Seafarers.
Irish Shipping Ltd. commissioned oil painting of many of their ships.
After the demise of Irish Shipping, the Institute acquired some of these paintings, at auction.
In 2002, Des Brannigan, the then President of the Institute proposed a
Commemorative Brochure to record the service of Irish Seafarers during the ‘Emergency’.
He approached the renowned maritime artist, Kenneth King, to paint the lost ships of other companies.
Kenneth King is a member of the institute, see the Kenneth King Gallery
The Institute remembers these seafarers every year, usually the second-last Sunday in November, in Dublin and on the fourth Sunday in Cork.
in 2002, the Institute had new flags of the wartime shipping companies made, so that they can be paraded at these ceremonies
The day opens with mass in City Quay church. Wreaths are laid at the Seamens’ Memorial. A reception in the parish hall follows. Then a Dublin port tug takes the wreaths out into Dublin Bay, where they are floated. Meanwhile we break for lunch. Reassemble for evensong at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
Sermon delivered in November 2003 by Robert C. Reed, Canon Preceptor, St Patrick’s Cathedral.
In 1940, Taoiseach Eamon deValera said “No country had ever been more effectively blockaded because of the activities of belligerents and our lack of ships, most of which had been sunk, which virtually cut all links with our normal sources of supply”
At the close of the war, he said “To the men of our mercantile marine, who faced all the perils of the ocean to bring us essential supplies the nation is profoundly grateful”
Capt Frank Forde gives an over-view of these losses
| M.V. MUNSTER | Mined and sunk in the Irish Sea – February 1940 |
| ST Leukos | Sunk with all 11 hands by gunfire from U-38 (Liebe) – NW Tory Island – 9th March 1940 |
| S.S. CLONLARA | Sunk in North Atlantic, 22nd August 1941 |
| Irish Lights Vessel – ISOLDA | Sunk by aircraft off Waterford coast, 19th December 1940 |
| S.S. IRISH PINE | Torpedoed and sunk – lost with all 33 hands – 15th November 1942 |
| S.S. KYLECLARE | Torpedoed in North Atlantic, 23rd February 1943 |
| S.S. IRISH OAK | Sunk by U-Boat U-607 in North Atlantic, 15th May 1943 |
| S.S. LUIMNEACH | Sunk by submarine gunfire in North Atlantic, 4th September 1940 |
| S.S. CITY OF BREMEN | Sunk by aircraft – Bay of Biscay – 2nd June 1942 |
| S.S. ARDMORE | Mined and sunk off Saltees Island, 11th November 1940 |
| S.S. CITY OF WATERFORD | Sunk in collision in Atlantic, 19th September 1941. |
| S.S. MEATH | Mined and Sunk in Irish Sea – 16th August 1940 |
| S.S. KERRY HEAD | Sunk by aircraft bombs, 22nd October 1940 |
| M.V. INNISFALLEN | Mined and Sunk in River Mersey, 21st December 1940 |
| S.S. St. FINTAN | Sunk in Irish Sea, 22nd March 1941 |
| SCHOONER CYMRIC | Missing at Sea, February 1944 |
| S.S. CITY OF LIMERICK | Sunk bu U-Boat in Atlantic, 15th July 1940 |
| NAOMH GARBHAN | Mined and Sunk off Waterford coast, 2nd May 1945 |
