Irish Naval Service’s L.É. Orla (ex-HMS Swift) in Dublin Bay

L.É. Orla (P41) and L.É. Ciara (P42) were bought from the UK’s Royal Navy in late 1988 for use by the Irish Naval Service. This was on foot of the discovery that Col. Gadaffy, the Libyan despot, was smuggling Semtex and arms to the IRA via Ireland’s then virtually unguarded coastline. These fast and powerfully armed ships are still used today for coastal patrols.
Each ship is powered by two Crossley SEMT-Pielstick 18 PA6V diesels which, unfortunately, are now quite smokey in use and expensive to run.
Armament consists of a 76mm Oto Melara Compact cannon, two 20mm Rheinmetall Rh202 cannons and two 12.7mm Browning HMGs. The 76mm Oto Melara can fire 85 rounds/minute with an effective range of 8 km when firing standard HE shells. Unlike the rest of Ireland’s naval fleet, the two vessels meet full warship standards in terms of redundancy and damage control etc and might be considered overkill for their current role.
Each ship carries two davit-deployed Avon (now Zodiac) SeaRider RIBs powered by twin Yamaha four-stroke outboards. Petrol for the outboards is carried in jettisonable canisters stored in two metal frames located either side of the stern.
Early history:
L.É. Orla (ex-HMS Swift, P243) and L.É. Ciara (ex-HMS Swallow, P242) were built by Russell Hall shipbuilders in the early 1980s for service in Hong Kong. The two ships (along with the identical HMS Peacock, HMS Plover and HMS Starling) carried out anti-infiltration patrols and fishery protection etc off Hong Kong. In 1988 Swift and Swallow were sold to Ireland. Following the transfer of UK sovereignty over Hong Kong to China, in 1997 Peacock, Plover and Starling were transferred to the Philippine Navy.
P41/42 dimensions: Length 62.8m. Beam 9.9m. Displacement 710 tons (in RN service). Range 2,500nm @ 16 knots. Max speed 25 knots (46 kmh). Emergency dash speed 30 knots (55kmh). Crew 39.
Note: The L.É. before the names of Irish naval vessels means Long Éireannach or Irish Ship.

Video by Karl Martin. Photos by Karl Martin and the Naval Service. Music by Ian Fisher.

For more on the Naval Service see ‘A History of the Irish Naval Service’ by Aidan McIvor (Irish Academic Press, 1994)