The Northern Ireland Squadron was a unit of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. It was established during the conflict in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

known as

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

to interdict the movement by sea of illegal arms for paramilitaries and to provide other material support for anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland. It existed from 1969 to 1998.

History

In 1969 the Royal Navy established the Northern Ireland Squadron which was deployed during The Troubles 969–1998to prevent paramilitary organisations moving illegal arms by sea and to support anti-terrorist operations in the province. In 1993 the squadron was moved to HM Naval Base Clyde, aka

Faslane Naval Base His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The squadron's disbandment was announced on 23 March 2005 as part of the process of normalization which follows the 1998

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

.Commons debate - 22 March 2010
/ref> The last three ships of the squadron, the Hunt-class ships , , and , were decommissioned on 19 July 2005, just a few days before the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...

completed the

decommissioning Decommissioning is a general term for a formal process to remove something from an active status, and may refer to: Infrastructure * Decommissioned offshore * Decommissioned highway * Greenfield status of former industrial sites * Nuclear decommi ...

of its weapons and called off its armed campaign.

Components

In 1993, the s, , , , and were assigned to the Northern Ireland Squadron where they replaced s. In 1998 the River-class vessels were replaced with (MCMVs).

Notes

References

Royal Navy page on HMNBC
redirects to Royal Marines front page

Navy News article on decommissioning
dead link
page includes photos of last NIS ships
dead link {{Squadrons of the Royal Navy, state=collapsed Royal Navy squadrons The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Military of Northern Ireland Military units and formations disestablished in 2005