Northern Ireland Squadron
The Northern Ireland Squadron was a unit of the Royal Navy. It was established during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles to interdict the movement by sea of illegal arms for paramilitaries and to provide other material support for anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland.
The squadron was moved to HM Naval Base Clyde, aka Faslane Naval Base, Scotland in 1993.
In 1993, River-class minesweepers, HMS Blackwater, HMS Spey, HMS Arun, and HMS Itchen were assigned to the Northern Ireland Squadron where they replaced Ton-class minesweepers.
The River-class vessels were replaced in 1998 with Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessels (MCMVs).
The squadron's disbandment was announced on 23 March 2005[1] as part of the process of normalization which follows the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.[2] The last three ships of the squadron, the Hunt-class ships HMS Brecon, HMS Cottesmore, and HMS Dulverton, were decommissioned on 19 July 2005, just a few days before the Provisional Irish Republican Army completed the decommissioning of its weapons and called off its armed campaign.
Notes
References
- Royal Navy page on HMNBC redirects to Royal Marines front page
- page on River-class ships
- page on Hunt-class ships, mentioning NIS
- Navy News article on decommissioning dead link
- page includes photos of last NIS ships dead link