Name LÉ Eithne Commissioned 7 December 1984 Identification P31 Launched 19 December 1983 Displacement 1.92 million kg Beam 12 m | Laid down 15 December 1982 Construction started 15 December 1982 Length 81 m Draft 4.3 m | |
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Namesake Ethniu, a tragic heroine in an early Irish romantic tale | ||
L eithne p31 turning cork harbour 2013
LÉ Eithne (P31) is a patrol vessel in service with the Irish Naval Service. The ship is named after Eithne, a tragic heroine and the daughter of the one-eyed Fomorian King, Balor in an early Irish romantic tale. Eithne is currently the flagship of the Irish Naval Service.
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Eithne was originally built as a Helicopter Patrol Vessel for long range fisheries patrol vessel, intended to be at sea for up to 30 days. It was originally planned to order four vessels of this class, but budget restrictions prevented this.
Design
Eithne was designed to carry a SA365F Dauphin helicopter, and is the only ship in the Irish Naval Service fleet to have a flight deck. Helicopter operations have stopped in recent years, due in part to the purchase of CASA CN235-100MP Persuader Maritime Patrol Aircraft and decommissioning of the Dauphin helicopters. The vessel was fitted with retractable fin stabilisers to reduce rolling during helicopter operations at sea.
Service
Eithne was the last ship of the Irish Naval Service to have been built in Ireland, constructed at Verolme Dockyard at Rushbrook, County Cork and completed in 1984. Shipbuilding operations ceased at the yard in 1984, and the yard went into receivership.
In April–June 2006 Eithne travelled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the first-ever deployment of an Irish warship in the southern hemisphere, in order to participate in commemorations of the impending sesquicentenary of the death of Admiral William Brown who had been born in Ireland. The ship brought back a statue of Brown for display in Dublin.
On 23 August 2014, asbestos was found on the ship necessitating a clean-up. Eithne is the third Naval Service vessel with the cancer-causing substance, after asbestos was also found on board LÉ Ciara and LÉ Orla.
On 5 May 2015 Minister of Defence Simon Coveney announced the deployment of Eithne to the Mediterranean as part of the EU's ongoing rescue mission for migrants. On 23 June 2015 Raidió Teilifís Éireann reported that, on the previous day, LÉ Eithne had rescued and taken aboard 519 migrants from three separate vessels, and would take them to Italy.