History of Irish Shipping

Irish shipping has a long and somewhat lively history in which the Irish are noted as having being avid seafarers. While Ireland has never had a great number of ships, the Irish are believed to have been particularly capable seafarers and to have had an aptitude to handle ships and navigation throughout the ages. Archaeological evidence points to very early maritime pursuits in Ireland, as far back as the Stone Age. However in the latter half of the 4^th century significant activity occurred when Irish high kings, Crimhthan the Great, Niall of the Nine Hostages and Daithi waged war on the Roman Empire and transported their armies by sea.   Trading between Scotland, The Isle of White and Ireland was common during this time which saw a vast amount of sea traffic move between these countries. Traffic later spread to France and Spain where goods such as silk were exchanged. This was known as the Currach age due to the abundance of currach boats used at this time.   When Christianity began to spread across Ireland with the arrival of St. Patrick during this period, missionaries across the country provided education to many. Ireland was gradually recognised as one of the main learning centres in Europe and soon saw an influx of foreign students. Once the Christianisation of Ireland had occurred, Irish missionaries set out to teach Christianity across Europe.   These missionaries accrued a significant amount of seafaring activity as they also reached places as far as Russia and Palestine between the 6^th and 9th centuries.

As Ireland was considered quite advanced in terms of scholastic pursuits, many foreign scholars searched for Irish teachers across Europe to study geography and medieval astronomy; important elements in sea navigation. During the 8^th century, the Irish born monk and geographer, Vergilius of Salzburg (700-784) taught publicly across Europe, though mainly in Salzburg, on the spherical earth theory and the existence of antipodes. During this time Dungal of Bobbio, who was also an Irish monk and astronomer, further reinforced the spherical earth theory by describing the inclination of the plane of the moon’s orbit during an eclipse.

In the 9^th century, Irish monk and geographer Dicuil wrote De Mensura Orbis Terrae, a book that provides concise information about various regions including Europe, Asia, Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia. He also compiled his first-hand investigations on the Irish in Iceland in 795 AD and notes the midnight sun, a phenomenon whereby the sun can be seen for a continuous twenty-four hours depending on latitudes in the North.   Indeed the Irish made use of this geographical and astronomical information on their own voyages, thereby using greater discrimination in their maritime pursuits.

During the 800s AD, Ireland was a thriving centre for trade and new world-wide commerce. It was also considered a haven for voyaging ships to shelter and a meeting place of the people. Ireland was also a place where the Vikings would recruit ground raiders to attack inland monasteries. The Norse and Danes, who were seafarers from Scandinavia, Denmark and other parts of Northern Europe, were alerted to this and came to Ireland in their droves to do business, occupying Ireland’s harbours and ports. These seafarers were known as the Vikings and in 897 AD, Muirigen, King of Leinster reclaimed Dublin after the Norse invasion. When the Vikings fled they left a number of dragon-ships behind. Though they returned fifteen years later, during that time the Irish had modernised their ships and more conflicts were carried out at sea. The Irish won their first famous naval victory in 950 AD. Although there were many other conflicts, life began to settle somewhat after the turmoil of the Viking invasions and the different Irish traditions began to fuse with those of the Vikings. Eventually the Vikings, who were primarily pagans, adopted Christianity and the Irish absorbed many of the Vikings’ customs and seafaring techniques.   Norse terms for warships, merchantmen, vessels and also Norse versions of place names were increasingly used by the Irish.

History provides many stories of maritime events but none more so than those relating to the mass emigration of the Irish to various parts of the world such as England, Australia and America during the Great Famine. This period saw approximately a million people transported by ship, many enduring oceans such as the Atlantic in extremely poor conditions. Owners of the ships provided little food and water for their passengers and overcrowding led to the outbreak of typhus in 1847. These ships were aptly named ‘coffin ships’ which saw many Irish die before reaching their destinations.   In more recent times, Irish shipping declined between approximately 1921 until the formation of Irish Shipping Limited during World War II. This period saw a surge of importing and exporting activity and an increase of Ireland’s fleets. The company remained neutral during the war and continued as a commercial strategic reserve until 1984 when it was forced into liquidation.