Marita Ann incident During September 1984, the vessel was involved in the arrest of the
Marita Ann off the southwest coast of Ireland, which carried a cargo of arms and ammunition consigned to the IRA.
LÉ Emer, LÉ
Aisling and
LÉ Deirdre maintained some distance until the arms entered Irish territorial waters. The contraband had come from the United States, and crossed the Atlantic on a fishing trawler, the
Valhalla. She did not approach the Irish coast, but transferred her illicit cargo to the
Marita Ann outside Irish waters. The intelligence services were aware of the plot, and
Valhallas voyage had been monitored by international agencies, and the naval service had begun to lay a trap once the
Marita Ann left
Dingle.
Aisling (Lt Cdr J.Robinson) and
Emer left
Haulbowline, with
Gardaí onboard both vessels.
Marita Anns course was plotted and by midnight it was 1,800 yards into territorial waters. Emer made a full-speed intercept and when half-a-mile off the target, called on her to stop. Such signals were ignored, and the vessel, which when illuminated by
Emers searchlights was revealed as
Marita Ann, altered course. The
Marita Ann could not outrun either vessel, and
Aisling moved into a position to prevent a breakout. After four rounds of tracer had been put across her bows,
Marita Ann gave up two miles inside the limit. The Naval Service/Garda boarding party met no resistance, and found five men and a large quantity of ammunition and arms on board. Two men,
Martin Ferris and Gavin Mortimer were taken on board the
Emer, John P. Crawley (a United States citizen) and John McCarthy were transferred to the
Aisling, and Michael "Mike" Browne (aged 42) remained on the
Marita Ann, which was towed by
Aisling. The convoy, escorted by LE
Deirdre, made its way to
Haulbowline,
Cobh, where a gathering of international media awaited its arrival.
Sonia incident In 1984 LÉ
Aisling was involved an international incident with a 330-ton Spanish fishing trawler called
Sonia, based in the
Basque port of
Ondarroa.
Aisling came across
Sonia illegally fishing in Irish waters south of the
Saltee Islands near
County Wexford.
Sonia quickly retrieved its gear before
Aisling could send a boarding party. When
Sonia got underway, she would have hit
Aisling amidships had the patrol vessel's engines not been put full astern. As it was,
Sonia missed
Aisling by , a small margin given the weather conditions. According to the captain, the heavy trawler's hull would have sliced
Aisling's thin plating. The episode continued with
Aisling giving chase and firing 600 warning shots.
Sonia turned towards
Aisling numerous times causing the latter to take evasive action. After five hours pursuing the
Sonia the captain of the
Aisling was ordered to break off as she approached
British waters. When
Aisling returned to its base in
Haulbowline,
Cobh that evening, news was fed back that
Sonia sank due to sea conditions and both a German freighter and a
Sea King helicopter flying out of
RAF Brawdy had rescued the 13 crewmen. The Spaniards denied that any attempt had been made to ram
Aisling and accused the Naval Service of causing their ship to sink by riddling it with gunfire. The Irish Government denied this, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr
Peter Barry, TD, reiterated this to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, who happened to be in
Luxembourg negotiating Spain's entry to the
European Economic Community.
Decommissioning from Irish service , July 2009 Lieutenant Commander
Roberta O'Brien, the state's first female commander of a Naval Service ship, took command of LÉ
Aisling in 2008. The vessel was officially decommissioned in its adopted city of Galway in June 2016. However, while representatives of the Department of Defence advised that the proposal was "under consideration" as of December 2016, it was noted that the vessels of the type may be "unsuitable for conversion to use as museums or visitor attractions". ==Sale and Libyan service==