Even though Ireland was a neutral country during WWII it didn’t escape the war completely unscathed.
It was especially it’s mercantile marine which was affected by the German Navy.
Ireland, unlike the majority of more recent independent nations, made no attempt to encourage the development of her own mercantile marine. Each year the fleet declined: from 127 in 1923, until in September 1939 they had only 56 ships flying the Irish flag, none ocean-going, all designed for the short sea trades.
This tiny fleet increased with the formation of Irish Shipping Ltd. in March 1941 when, under great difficulty, 15 ocean-going dry cargo ships were purchased or chartered.
16 Ships were lost in unprovoked actions. I will not be talking about all 16 but I will focus to the ones which were registered in my hometown of Limerick.
The City of Limerick
City of Limerick was the first Irish ship…
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History of Sorts 