This afternoon.
Michael O’Riordan writes:
A deep bass throbbing got my attention and I tracked it down to the LE Niamh as she entered Dublin past the East Link bridge just now (2:05 pm). Apparently 14 metres shorter than her little sisters the Samuel Beckett and the James Joyce, the Niamh is still one hell of a good looking vessel!
Sexist pig.
Migrants being rescued in the Mediterranean yesterday
Captain Dave Barry spoke to Keelin Shanley on RTÉ Radio One about LÉ Niamh’s ongoing rescue efforts in the Mediterranean.
Their discussion came after a boat off the Libya coast – containing approximately 700 people – capsized yesterday.
It’s been reported that LÉ Niamh rescued 367 of these people and recovered 25 bodies.
Cpt Barry spoke about one particular incident that happened yesterday, concerning a crew member from LÉ Niamh. He said:
“As the rib crew were recovering people from the water, they recovered a man, a woman and their infant baby between them when they recovered them. The baby was unconscious and needed resuscitation and on the inflated tank on the side of the rib, you’d a member of the Naval service carrying out CPR and he managed to resuscitate the baby while simultaneously still trying to rescue other people.
He returned the baby to the parents and while he was continuing to rescue other people, the parents alerted him that the baby had drifted into unconsciousness again. He returned, he used a different technique which he’d been trained to do which was rubbing and massaging the back of the baby, causing the baby to vomit. And, as a result, the baby was resuscitated a second time and he proceeded then to rescue other people. This is the type of situation that you’re in.”
Listen back in full here
Migrant rescue a testament to naval service – Coveney (RTE)
LÉ ‘Niamh’ rescues 367 people after capsize in Mediterranean (Irish Times)
Pic: MSF
Captain David Barry spoke with Áine Lawlor on the News at One about how the LE Niamh recovered 14 bodies from a wooden barge in the Mediterranean.
From the interview…
Captain David Barry: “Yesterday morning, she [LE Niamh] was tasked to carry out a rescue on a barge and this was north of Tripoli, Libya. She picked up about 240 people from that and later that day she was tasked with a second vessel. They came across another an ex- it would have been an ex-fishing vessel with approximately 500 people on board. This vessel was grossly overcrowded. Even by the standards of what is happening down there and some of the people on board told our crew that there were casualties on board. So we transferred 210 people to our ship and a further, approximately 300, to a Médecins Sans Frontières ship, Dignity 1. At this stage, it was dark and our people carried out a search of the vessel, where unfortunately we found the remains of 14 people below decks.”
Listen back in full here
LÉ Niamh recovers 14 bodies during Mediterranean rescue (Irish Times)
Pic: RTE
A child being rescued on to Irish Navy vessel LÉ Eithne, off the coast of Libya last month
Further to the news that a baby girl was born on LÉ Niamh on July 22,…
It would be an appropriate and generous gesture to offer Irish citizenship to the mother of the baby girl Destiny, who was born in the LÉ Niamh on July 22nd. The nation is justly proud of what our Naval Service is doing in the Mediterranean, and the birth of a baby on board the Niamh is a powerful and much-needed symbol of a new world of peace and hope. It also symbolises how a small nation can play a healing role in a world that so often distresses and discourages us by its violence and the sheer scale of its cruelties and injustices.
The circumstances of Destiny’s birth are too compelling a symbol to be buried in the sort of red tape that normally characterises applications for asylum. The offer should dispense with all the formalities that normally precede citizenship. Destiny’s mother, together with her baby, could be singled out and given a place of honour in any ceremony that celebrates the creation of new citizens.
She will have to be found and graciously offered Irish citizenship. She may of course decline the offer, but at least a generous gesture will have been made in an age when hostility to foreigners is not as uncommon as one might wish.
Gabriel Daly
Ballyboden,
Dublin 16.
Citizenship and mother of Destiny (Irish Times letters)
Related: Baby girl born on LÉ Niamh after rescue operation (RTE)
