Ireland’s Naval History
Ireland, holding the largest territorial waters of any EU Member State, waters which the state seeks to expand further, has a dismal naval service. Under-staffed, under-funded, and under-stocked, Ireland’s maritime capacities are shadow of what they could be.
Ireland, as a small island nation would under normal historical circumstances have been expected to have developed a robust naval service à la the mercantilist models pioneered by the Dutch, and perfected by the British. However, owing to Britain’s historic hegemony over this island, Ireland’s natural development was disrupted, and a new path through history was chosen for Ireland the hands of a foreign power.
However, in spite of this disruption, we find among the British and United States Naval Services, glimpses of Ireland’s capacities to succeed on the high seas. Absent from modern discourses on Irish history are such figures who succeeded in the British naval service, our Fenian diaspora, and our Wild Geese, all of whom have contributed vastly to naval service and innovation.
Among the most significant of these, is Sir George Callaghan, who on the eve of WW1, whipped a disorganized British Navy into a formidable military force in record time. Born in London to Irish parents in 1852 Callaghan enlisted in the British Navy as was common at the time. Through his naval schooling and postings at sea, he swiftly maneuvered through the ranks of the British Naval Service, notably participating in the rescue of European delegates to Peking during the Boxer Rebellion for which he was appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Further, for his role in providing relief efforts in the Mediterranean he rose to international prominence, later receiving the Grand Cordon of the French Legion of Honour. In May of 1913, Callaghan was appointed as Admiral, and soon moved to prepare the British fleet for war, which he did with excellent skill.
Yet Irishmen have not only performed endeavors in day-to-day naval service and military command. As the Irish-American John Philip Holland demonstrates, the Irish capacity for revolutionary naval innovation is immense. Born circa 1841 in County Clare, Holland later emigrated to the United States, where he would subsequently begin drafting blueprints for the submarine. A key component of modern naval warfare, Holland invented this vessel not merely for the sake of the United States Navy, but explicitly for the purposes of creating a machine which could be used to liberate Ireland from British rule by circumventing the fire-power of the British Navy. With the first ever submarine prototype model being named the Fenian Ram in honour of his aims, Holland’s initial efforts were funded by the Irish Fenian Society in the U.S.
Irish contribution in the service of European powers contributed the burgeoning naval development of the nineteenth century, with a coterie of Irish naval officers contributing towards Imperial Russia’s naval service and the later Austro-Hungarian First World War naval airplane pilot Gottfried Freiherr von Banfield (a descendant of the Wild Geese) not to mention the Irish-Argentine Admiral William Brown and his work in constructing an Argentine navy.
Ireland’s natural security and economic interests lie in its vast territorial seas. The neglect of these vital interests in previous decades has been a catastrophic strategic blunder for the state as well as a disgrace to the latent potential for this country to achieve great feats. The recollection of the successful careers by Irishmen throughout the world serving in foreign navies stands as a reminder that Ireland today may still aspire to the construction of a naval fleet befitting of our maritime territory and national pride.