The LÉ GRAINNE

The LÉ GRAINNE, a Coastal Mine Sweeper sea vessel, was the first own-mural which I painted on the East Pier wall in 1976. (I had previously restored one other mural of the ELIANA cargo ship, which was created by another artist).

In the late 1960s, the future viability of the Irish Naval Service was in serious doubt due to the  very low stock of its national fleet at the time.

Then in 1971, the Navy Service procured three vessels of a similar design of the Royal Navy Coniston class: the LÉ GRAINNE (formerly the HMS OULSTON), the LÉ BANBA (formerly the HMS ALDERTON) and the LÉ FOLA (formerly the HMS BLAXTON). Collectively, the vessels came under the Ton Class, given their shared Royal Navy name-endings.

The three vessels would periodically visit Wicklow harbour as part of their duty of maintaining contact with different coastal ports. On occasions, the vessels were made available for local people to come on board to visit.

I recall, as I was painting the mural, when the crew of either the LÉ BANBA or the LÉ FOLA were visting the harbour, they would mischievously change the patrol number for the LÉ GRAINNE (CM10) to one of the other two (CM11 for the LÉ BANBA; CM12 for the LÉ FOLA) without my knowledge. As a result, I was left somewhat bewildered and wondering which vessel I should really be painting!

I recall, too, the time when I was invited by the GRAINNE crew on board for a cup of tea. I had left my brownie box camera on the quayside behind me and, alas, that was the last I was to see of it!

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