If you are in or Know of people in these photos then visit the message board mentioned on the Home page and leave a note for all of us to say where you are and what you are doing now.
Photos from time served In the naval service Aboard L.E.Eithne(P31) from 1986 onwards.
All the following Photos are property of one HPT Murphy. I assume when he sent me all these he wanted them posted.I hold no responsibility for any discomfort caused by viewing some of these photos...All Captions by Mr Murphy Himself.i.e thats him firing the rhinemetall..not the pig in charge(someday...perhaps)
They are the best look at Naval Life that I have ever seen(no frills)
In no particular order...
Eithne Alongside Waterford 1993
Heli Ops
It did actually live with us breifly in 1987
hail the Dauphin.....FDO and his young apprentice
A mirage from 1987
The Dauphin on the deck had suffered an engine fire the previous day and the one hovering was bringing in spare parts and engineers.Taken in the Irish sea in the autumn of 1987
Dope on a rope.On of the repair crew arriving to work on the damaged 244
taken with a 35mm lens before he did a HIFR 1987
Eithne Dunmore east 13 june 199
When we didn't have a helo we used to get volunteers to flap their arms and run around the flight deck.Today it was the Engineering divisions turn
Exercise
Deirdre passes Aisling on shoot 1988
PVs line astern on a shoot 1988
Port Rheinmetall "engage".... me 1988
R.N AEW Seaking taking a closer look at us Oct 1987'PurpleWarrior
theres that bloody seaking again
Bridge L.E. Eithne ..Christmas day 1987
Boarding Stations
damo and mugger getting a searider alongside...notice the lack of safety gear (This is just too scary..PIC)
Boarding Stations
divers replacing 'anodes'on the ships hull along side in Dunlaoighre Jan 1988,The man standing is LtCdr Tom Meehan . the boat cox is Steve Mulligan and the divers are Damien Power and Coochie Doyle
just hanging around
l to r A/sea's Donal 'mugger 'Maguire ' and Gerry Cousins both from Wexford Both Lunatics .Can't remember why the lifejackets.Probably ship was on fire again.
Another case of you cant outrun the 20mm
gotcha!
march 1988 we detained half a dozen Russian factory ships in Bantry buying fish from spaniards and Brits .The poser is none other than A/Sea Murphy.
Other Naval Service ,Dept Of Defence and Irish Vessels and Aircraft
MTL Colleen 2 Haulbowline 1986
Deirdre from the David F 1986
Aoife alongside waterford 1989
Business end of Ciaras 76mm.Alongside Waterford (by accident) 1989
The other end of L.E. Ciara
Ciara Alongside Waterford 1989
last of the Sweepers going for scrap january 1988
Irish Lights Tender M.V Grey Seal Alongside Waterford March 1989
No wonder they keep crashing them some idiots wall papered the iside of the cockpit
up close and personnal 1990
People and Personalities aboard L.E.Eithne
Engineering division LE eithne spring 1988
The Bosun Seanie(baldy) Smith
left to right A/sea Paul Kelly A/Sea martin'chippy'Molloy and A/Mech Tom McCarthy
Strangely Murf has no caption for this one...
Stewards Division Eithne 86-88
A/sea Colm Moroney.Don't ask....!
Top Donal Maguire(mugger) Bottom Denis Murphy(cookie Monster)
Farewell to 'Coochie 'Doyle 1988
During the period when Cdr Eoin McNamara was the OC L.E Eithne we were required to mount sentries at all times after a never spoken about incident with the Ranger wing.This is me on New Years Eve 1987 carrying out on of these duties
(Compare this pic to that of the poser with the russian factory ships seen earlier..)
The lonliness of comand.The aforementioned officer observing R.N andR.M forces during operation 'Purple Warrior" off the Mull Of Kintyre in 1987
Foreign Naval Visitors
Russian spy ship watching Purple Warrior exercises from inside irish waters October 1987. We were asked to move it along.It took us a while to get the message across.Taking the cover from the 20mm usually makes the point.
La Combattante alongside Waterford 1988.
Interesting to note that she is the sole of class and was the fore runner to the Combattante 2+3 seris.Early in her carrer she had been used for ship board Exocet trials but at this stage she was fitted with a sole L40/70 Bofors and was used as a training vessel
Russian training ship alongside Cork Sept 1990(Kashan)
STY Lord Nelson Waterford 1988
And when you tire of the sea..You Become a reservist and Join the Cav!
Car Commander AML60,with 0.5HMG.Me.Gunner: Derek Hackett,Driver:John Fitzpatrick.Patricks Day 1997