The Naval Base and Ships of Cork Harbour

A new book by Daire Brunicardi details the history of Cork Harbour as a naval base

This book outlines the history of Cork Harbour as a naval base. It covers the development of Haulbowline Island as a victualing yard and later as a dockyard, and some of the other facilities in the harbour area directly linked with the port as a naval base (Admiralty House, sports grounds in Ringaskiddy, naval hospital etc.) . It also gives interesting and valuable accounts of the activities of the ships based there and the involvement of the navy and Coast Guard (which was a branch of the navy) in political and administrative activities on the Irish coasts. From the first proposal that Cork Harbour was more suitable as a naval base than Kinsale, it took a long time before facilities were put in place on Haulbowline Island. This culminated in the building of the series of storehouses, water storage and limited repair facilities which were completed in 1821. Over the remainder of the 19th century there was political pressure brought to bear to have Cork Harbour developed as a major naval base. As a result the dockyard was built, starting in 1866 and being completed, more or less in about 1890 with various delays, cost over-runs and changes in government policy hindering it. Cork never achieved the aspirations of those promoting it to be a major base similar to Chatham or Portsmouth. Meanwhile the ships based in the harbour were active, in preventing smuggling, in famine relief, in aiding the civil authorities in dealing with the Fenian threat, and other political agitations and in policing the fisheries. Cork Harbour became a front line base during the First World War and was the headquarters of the admiral directing the war against the U-boats. The first US flotillas in the war were based here. The end of the First World War and the then the Anglo-Irish Treaty saw changed fortunes for the Cork Harbour base. Briefly Haulbowline was used as a base for the short lived ‘Coastal and Marine Service. Considerable effort was made by the new Irish Government to keep the dockyard on Haulbowline open commercially. Meanwhile the British navy still had a ‘presence’ in Cork Harbour and in Irish waters. There is an interesting account of the British navy’s actions in the Irish Civil War that throws a new light on British involvement during that period. There is also some interesting commentary by the captain of the naval ships based in Cork Harbour in the years before the handover of the Treaty Ports in 1938. The Second World War saw the base reactivated as a naval base for the Marine Service, forerunner of the present Irish navy. Much of the activity of this small service in a critical time is included. After the war the establishment of a naval service as a component of the Permanent Defence Forces seemed to secure the fortunes of the naval base, but the 1960s saw the navy at a low ebb. However the 1970s, political unrest in Northern Ireland and accession to the European Community revived the service. Today it is a modern forward looking, efficient and innovative organisation. Much of the material has not been published before. The Naval activities during the 19th century are taken largely, but not entirely, from the National Archives at Kew, in the UK. Newspaper accounts have been consulted extensively as well as other sources. The Irish National Archives have been consulted with interesting results mainly for the period immediately after independence (keeping Haulbowline open) and also Military Archives in Cathal Brugha barracks.