The Minister for the Marine's decision to develop a national coastguard and to establish valour awards has been given a qualified welcome by Dr John de Courcy Ireland, the maritime historian.
He said that he hoped the new coastguard would "fit in" with existing structures, including the Naval Service and the Garda's coastwatching units. He also called on the Minister to ensure that the award scheme included recognition of merit.
The national marine award scheme is intended to recognise bravery, meritoriousness and long service. A special valour award for non-dedicated personnel will be named after Michael Heffernan, who lost his life last year during a search and rescue mission at Belderrig, Co Mayo.
The Minister, addressing a marine safety seminar at Dublin Castle at the weekend, said that he intended to formulate a policy for marine rescue. As first reported in The Irish Times last month, the new coastguard is a development of the existing Irish Marine Emergency Service (IMES), which comprises 600 volunteers attached to 50 area units around the coastline.
Dr Woods intends to initiate legislation to place the coastguard on a statutory basis as a first step towards an independent agency. It will have a broader remit than most European coastguard services. Its badge will be modelled on the officers' cap emblem of the Marine Service of 1940.
Before independence, Ireland had a coastguard which performed a defence role and also assisted the Royal Irish Constabulary. Abandoned after the Treaty, it was replaced temporarily in 1923 by a coastal and marine service designed to prevent gun-running and provide fishery protection. This was succeeded by a coastwatching service, staffed by volunteers, which had a defence role during the second World War.
For over four decades, the vacuum in marine rescue was filled by the voluntary Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the Naval Service and the Air Corps - and by the RAF and British Coastguard until 1991, when the Government established a mediumrange helicopter station at Shannon.
As part of the IMES network, coast and cliff rescue units were revived, re-equipped and re trained. Old horse-drawn carts were replaced by trailers and then by vans - four of which were handed over by the Minister to the service at Dublin Castle at the weekend. IMES units now have hand-held VHF radios, chargeable battery lamps, portable generators and other modern equipment.
