LÉ ''Ciara'' (P42) was a in the Irish Naval Service. Like the rest of her class, she was originally designed for use by 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 Fra ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

waters, and was delivered in 1984 by

Hall, Russell & Company Hall, Russell & Company, Limited was a shipbuilder based in Aberdeen, Scotland. History Brothers James and William Hall, Thomas Russell, a Glasgow engineer, and James Cardno Couper founded the company in 1864 to build steam engines and boile ...

as HMS ''Swallow'' (P242). The ship was passed to the Irish Naval Service in 1988 and was commissioned under her current name by the then

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...

Charles Haughey Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992. He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from ...

on 16 January 1989. She is the sister ship of .

Royal Navy service

The ship was built as HMS ''Swallow'' with the yard number of 991 at the Aberdeen yard of Hall Russell. She was launched on 30 March 1984 and completed on 17 October 1984. In 1988 she was sold to the Republic of Ireland and renamed LÉ ''Ciara''.

Etymology

In Irish service, the ship took her name from Saint Ciara, born in

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

in the 7th century who, after taking religious vows in her teens, founded a convent in Kilkeary, near

Nenagh Nenagh (, ; or simply ''An tAonach'') meaning “The Fair of Ormond” or simply "The Fair", is the county town and second largest town in County Tipperary in Ireland. Nenagh used to be a market town, and the site of the East Munster Ormond ...

. The ship's coat-of-arms depict three golden chalices which represent the three ancient

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

s among which Tipperary was divided. Also featured is a Celtic cross as a representation of the North Cross at Ahenny, County Tipperary. The coat of arms incorporates the Tipperary colours of Blue and Yellow as well as the background or field colours of the Tipperary Arms which is Ermine - white with a pattern of black arrowhead shaped points.

Weapons and equipment

The ship's principal armament is an

OTO Melara 76 mm The OTO Melara 76 mm gun is a naval gun built and designed by the Italian defence company OTO Melara. It is based on the OTO Melara 76/62C and evolved toward 76/62 SR and 76/62 Strales. The system is compact enough to be installed on rel ...

Compact gun. This has a range and can fire 85 rounds per minute. It can be used in both anti-aircraft and anti-ship roles. It holds an 80-round magazine that can easily be reloaded by a two-man team. There are also two single 20 mm Rh202 Rheinmetall cannons and two 12.7 mm machine guns. She is equipped with surveillance equipment and a fishery protection information system which is regularly updated via a satellite link to the Irish Naval Service base at Haulbowline Island near Cobh. ''Ciara'' has a cruising speed of and a sprint speed of , making her the fastest ship in the Irish Navy; the crew have nicknamed her "Road Runner" after the speedy cartoon character, which is portrayed on the funnel.

History

Throughout her career, LÉ ''Ciara'' has been involved in fisheries protection patrols as well as search and rescue missions. In 2011, the vessel was temporarily taken out of service to address an issue with the hull, and was again kept out of commission for several months in mid-2014 for removal of asbestos. On 8 July 2022, LÉ ''Ciara'' was decommissioned together with and .

References

External links

IDF LÉ ''Ciara'' webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciara (P42) 1984 ships Naval ships of the Republic of Ireland Peacock-class corvettes of the Irish Naval Service Peacock-class corvettes Ships built by Hall, Russell & Company