In better days Ireland had a small merchant marine and a principled and sane foreign policy.
And Frank Aiiken played a big part in both.
When Minister for External Affairs he devoted himself to the cause of Nuclear Disarmament at the United Nations and was responsible for the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty which resulted from 8 years of his work there. The Treaty appears to be a dead letter today. And Irish Foreign Policy has lost the moral compass of Cool Hand (and Cool Head) Dev. .
Aiken had in the 1940s been instrumental in procuring old ships which helped the State to avoid famine during the Second World War. After WWII modern Irish ships were sailing the Seven Seas. One of the managers, Ernie Nunan, was a dapper cheerful man with a London accent.
Ernie was one of the London Irish who fought under the Tricolour in Dublin at Easter 1916. I didn’t know it at the time but it must have given him great pleasure to have that flag saluted throughout the world
I worked for nearly four years in the HQ of Irish Shipping Ltd on Dublin’s Aston Quay.
And discovered today a printout of cables received there on 26 November 1962,
One of the cables read:-
“43/THE FOLLOWING IS PRIORITY MESSAGE BEING BROADCAST TO ALL VESSELS IN THE VICINITY OF CUBA:
‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS DECLARED A QUARANTINE OF OFFENSIVE MILITARY EQUIPMENT UNDER SHIPMENT TO CUBA. REACTIONS MAY MAKE WINDWARD PASSAGE, YUCATAN CHANNEL AND FLORIDA STRAITS DANGEROUS WATERS. SHIPS ARE ADVISED TO USE MONA PASSAGE. SHIPS TRANSMITTING THE STRAITS OF FLORIDA ARE ADVISED TO NAVIGATE IN PROXIMITY TO THE FLORIDA KEYS. SHIPS PASSING THROUGH YUCATAN CHANNEL ARE ADVISED TO FAVOR THE COAST OF THE YUCATAN PENINSULA.
OCEANSEAS NEW YORK’ “
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