Irish Ferries

Irish Ferries Ltd

Type	Division
Industry	Tourism & Transportation
Predecessor	B&I Line; Irish Continental Line
Founded	1992
Headquarters	Dublin, Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
Number of locations	Dublin Port, Holyhead, Rosslare, Pembroke, Cherbourg & Roscoff
Area served	Ireland, United Kingdom & France
Key people	Eamonn Rothwell, MD
Services	Passenger transportation, Freight transportation;
Parent	Irish Continental Group (ICG) plc.
Divisions	Irish Ferries; Eucon;
Subsidiaries	Irish Ferries Freight; irishferries.com; Dublin Ferryport Terminals; Belfast Container Terminal
Website	www.irishferries.com; www.icg.ie

Irish Ferries route map

Ulysses

HSC Jonathan Swift

Oscar Wilde

Isle of Inishmore

Irish Ferries is a division of Irish Continental Group (ICG) plc, an Irish maritime group.

The company operates passenger and freight routes between Ireland, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, particularly: Dublin Port–Holyhead; Rosslare Europort to Pembroke and Roscoff, Cherbourg in France. In 2014 Irish Ferries introduced a new weekly service from Dublin Port to Cherbourg.

The company's flagship, MS Ulysses, is currently the largest ROPAX ferry operating on the Irish Sea and when launched (2001) was the world's largest car ferry in terms of car-carrying capacity. Other ships in the fleet include MS Isle of Inishmore, MS Oscar Wilde and the fast ferry HSC Jonathan Swift (aka Dublin Swift as she is currently promoted). The company also charters out a vessel, MV Kaitaki to Interisland Line, and charters in a ro-pax vessel, MS Epsilon. The company used to charter Pride of Bilbao, but sold her to St. Peter Line in 2013, who renamed her MS SPL Princess Anastasia (1986).

Irish Ferries is part of the Irish Continental Group (ICG) which trades on the Irish Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. ICG also owns the Eucon container line which operates vessels on routes between Ireland and the continent.

History

Irish Continental Line was formed in 1973 as a joint venture between Irish Shipping Limited, Fearnley & Eger and Swedish company Lion Ferry. It originally operated on the Rosslare–Le Havre route with the 547 berth, 210 car ferry Saint Patrick.^[1] When Irish Shipping Ltd. went into liquidation in 1984, Irish Continental Line was sold off in a management buyout and emerged as Irish Continental Group.

In 1992, Irish Continental Group took over the British and Irish Steam Packet Company Limited, a nationalised company which traded under the name B + I Line and operated ferry services between Dublin and Holyhead and between Rosslare and Pembroke Dock.

Investment

As part of its offer to buy B&I Line, management at Irish Continental Group undertook to invest in replacing what was an ageing fleet. Over the following decade, a programme of fleet renewal was undertaken involving investment of €500 million to create what was described as the most modern ferry fleet in western Europe (1).

New vessels were built such as Ulysses, Isle of Innisfree (now on charter in New Zealand as Kaitaki), Isle of Inishmore and a fast ferry Jonathan Swift, all for service on its Ireland–UK routes. As a result, the company put itself in a position to attract increased passenger and freight business, influenced by the modern facilities and improved reliability of each vessel and the extra capacity that was available on board.

Awards

Irish Ferries has won awards from consumer, travel trade and logistics industry groups. In 2001, the newly completed vessel Ulysses was awarded the title 'Most Significant Newbuild – Ferry' by Lloyds List Cruise & Ferry.^[2] In 2014, at two separate award ceremonies, the Irish travel trade voted Irish Ferries 'Best Ferry Company'.

Fleet

Ship	Built	Entered Service	Route	Crossing Times	Gross Tonnage	Notes
Ulysses	2001	2001	Dublin Port–Holyhead	3 hours 15 minutes	50,938 GT	The largest ro-pax ferry currently (2014) operating on the Irish Sea, carrying up to 1,875 passengers and 1,342 cars.
Isle of Inishmore	1997	1997	Rosslare Europort - Pembroke Dock	4 hours	34,031 GT	Carrying up to 2,200 passengers and 855 cars.
Jonathan Swift	1999	1999	Dublin Port - Holyhead	1 hour 49 minutes	5,989 GT	Carrying up to 800 passengers and 200 cars, and with an average speed of 39 knots.
Oscar Wilde	1987	2007	Rosslare - Cherbourg/Roscoff	16–17 hours	31,914 GT	Carrying up to 1,458 passengers, 580 cars and with 1,376 beds.
Epsilon	2011	2014	Dublin Port–Cherbourg/Dublin-Holyhead	19 hours / 3 hrs 25 minutes	26,375 GT	Operating Dublin - Holyhead (mid-week) & Dublin - Cherbourg (week-ends).

Ships under charter to other companies

Ship	Under charter to	Built	Purchased by Irish Ferries	Route	Tonnage^1	Notes
Kaitaki	Interisland Line	1995	1995	Picton–Wellington	22,365 GT	Sailed for Irish Ferries as 'Isle of Innisfree' 1995–2001
^1May be specified in gross tonnage (GT) or gross register tons (GRT).

Former ships

This transport-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Ship	Years in service	Gross Register Tonnage	Status as of 2008
Saint Patrick	1972–1982	7,819 GRT [3]	In 1982 renamed the St. Colum 1 and transferred to Belfast Car Ferries.[4] Scrapped as EXPRESS P at Alang, India in August 2005
Saint Killian Saint Killian II	1978–1981 1982–1997	7,125 GRT 10,256 GRT	Scrapped in Alang, 2007
Saint Patrick II	1982–1997	7,984 GRT	Since 2002 sailing as MS C.T.M.A. Vacancier for Coopérative de transport maritime et aérien
Isle of Inishmore Isle of Inishturk	1995–1996 1996–1997	6,807 GRT	Since 1997 sailing as Madeleine for Coopérative de transport maritime et aérien.
Normandy	1998–2007	17,043 GRT	sold to Equinox Offshore Accommodation and chartered to the Morocco-based Ferrimaroc. Scrapped in Alang, 2012
Pride of Bilbao	1993–2010 2010	37,799 GRT	Sailed under charter to P&O Ferries. Sold to St. Peter Line in 2014.
Thomas Wehr	1992	7,628 GRT

References

1. "Irish Ferries". Irish Ferries Enthusiasts Group. Retrieved 2012-11-16.
2. ‘Irish Ferries – An Ambitious Voyage’ by Miles Cowsill and Justin Merrigan
3. http://maritime-connector.com/ship/express-p-7302885
4. http://www.irish-ferries-enthusiasts.com/irishferrieshsitory.php

External links

• Irish Ferries – Online Tickets Sales & Reservations
• Irish Continental Group (corporate)
• Irish Ferries (consumer)
• (Irish ferries enthusiasts site)
• Irish Ferries You Tube Channel (consumer)