We should give credit where it’s due to our Navy personnel

JOHN Downing’s excellent article (‘Gunboat rhetoric: DUP ignoring facts here – but fisheries are a big Brexit issue’, Irish Independent, March 2) and his reference to “the highly professional Irish Navy as being a long way from the public sector poor relation lampooned by the Dubliners’ 67 song”, deserves a comment.

It is unfortunate that yet again The Dubliners’ disparaging remarks about those who served on the corvettes LÉ Clíona, LÉ Maebh and LÉ Macha receives a mention. To be precise, personnel who served during the period 1946 to the late 1960s kept these vessels afloat despite a lack of investment by government. Indeed successive Irish governments ignored warnings by senior naval officers of the urgent requirement for new ships. Thankfully in recent years, the Fine Gael/Labour coalition upgraded the service and purchased new vessels.

In September 2016, the history of those who served on the corvettes was exemplified when then-defence minister Simon Coveney unveiled a commemorative stone on the Haulbowline naval base, dedicated to the crew of LÉ Cliona. The inscription reads, “In recognition of the ship’s company of LÉ Cliona, whose collective actions, following a fire on board ship, on 29th May 1962, ensured the safe return of LÉ Cliona to port”.

Perhaps these words are a more appropriate epitaph in memory of those who served on the Irish corvettes, rather than the disparaging remarks of a folk group? Peter Mulvany

Clontarf, Dublin 3