A little bit of Irish Heritage

Two passenger liner tenders were commissioned by the Irish Government on July 12, 1961 - the M.V. Blarna and its exact replica or sister ship, the M.V. Cill Airne.

The tenders were commissioned to service the passenger liners that plied between ports in England and New York. The liners were too large to enter Cork Harbour and the two sisters would bring mail and passengers to and fro.

The sisters were built in the Liffey Dockyard in Dublin and were the very last of the rivetted ships to be built in Europe. Rivetting was being replaced by electric arc welding in the 1930s but the incredible production of the Liberty ships during the war sealed the fate of rivetting forever. Research has indicated that the decision to rivet the two sisters was a political one, designed to ensure employment of the last of the rivetting crews in the Liffey Dock. So the T.S.M.V. Cill Airne has a European industrial significance, as well as a social connection to Dublin.

Designed to carry over 1,000 passengers, and occasionally cars of wealthy Americans visiting Ireland, the two sisters suffered from the collapse of the Liner trade following the proliferation of Airline traffic. During her duty the Cill Airne brought Laurel & Hardy and American President Eisenhower ashore. The Blarna was sold to a Canadian ferry company in Quebec and the Cill Airne was handed to the Maritime College as a training vessel for engineers.

The M.V. Cill Airne brought marine engineers to sea where they familiarized themselves with radar, lifeboats and engine room practices. She maintained in class to carry 500 passengers (reduced due to the removal of necessary life saving equipment for 1,000 passengers) and sailed every fortnight.

The Maritime College also organised weekend trips from her berth at Custom House Quay in Cork to Cobh every Sunday, and many Corconians fondly remember their wonderful experiences on board the ship as she sailed along the beautiful River Lee with a band on deck. Cill Airne was also traditionally used to celebrate the ´throwing of the dart´ by the new Lord Mayor of Cobh to represent the staking of his jurisdiction each year.

In 2003, the Maritime College was rehoused in a new state-of-the-art building with a mockup engine room and ship sailing simulators, making the M.V. Cill Airne obsolete.

The College placed the vessel up for auction where she was purchased by a group of Dublin City investors. She spent nine months in Cork dock undergoing major restoration work under the inspection of the Maritime Safety Directive. The work has ensured the long-term preservation of the ship. In January 2006, she sailed under her own power to Hegarty’s Boatyard in West Cork, where a quality team of old style shipwrights restored the MV Cill Airne to her present condition.