Irish Continental Group plc,
, trading as Irish Ferries, is a quoted Irish
Ferry operator.
The
company operates on the Dublin Port
(North Wall) - Holyhead
route, and
from Rosslare
Europort
to Roscoff, Cherbourg
, and Pembroke
.
The company's flagship, the
Ulysses, is the world's largest car
ferry in terms of car-carrying capacity. Other ships in the fleet
include the
Isle of
Inishmore,
Oscar
Wilde and the fast ferry
HSC Jonathan Swift (aka
Dublin
Swift). Irish Continental's
chief
executive is Eamonn Rothwell. Its shares are traded on the
Irish Stock Exchange and the
London Stock Exchange.
The company also charters out two vessels,
Pride of Bilbao and
Kaitaki to
P&O Ferries and
Interisland Line, respectively. They also
own the Eucon container line who operate a number of vessels.
History
The company was formed in 1973 as a joint venture between Irish
Shipping Limited,Fearnley & Eger and Swedish company Lion
Ferry. Originally called
Irish Continental Line, it first
operated on the Rosslare - Le Havre with the
St. Patrick.
When Irish Shipping went into liquidation in 1984, ICL was sold off
in a management buyout and took on its current name.
In 1992, Irish Ferries took over the British and Irish Steampacket
Company Limited, a nationalised company which traded under the name
B & I Line and operated ferry services between Dublin -
Holyhead as well as Dublin - Liverpool.
New vessel for French service
Irish
Ferries took delivery of the 1989 - built MS Kronprins Harald from the
Norwegian
shipping company Color
Line in September 2007. The ship was renamed MS
Oscar Wilde and is currently in operation between Rosslare
Europort - Cherbourg and Roscoff. She entered service in December
2007 on the Dublin - Holyhead line, then the Rosslare - Pembroke
Dock and finally to her selected route, Rosslare - Cherbourg and
Rosslare-Roscoff. Instead of receiving the traditional white hull
of Irish Ferries, the ship maintained the blue hull of Color
Line.
Controversy
On the
23 February 2004, Irish Ferries announced that the firm could close
over a dispute about a cost-cutting plan if it was not resolved
soon. Director of Human Resources Alf McGrath announced the lay-off
of 600 staff in the following few days. Also announced was the
suspension of the swift ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, the
Rosslare-Pembroke service, and the Rosslare route to Cherbourg and
Roscoff.
On the
24 March 2005 it
became known that, according to
SIPTU, a
contractor working for Irish Ferries was paying a
Filipina woman just over €1 an hour to work
as a beauty therapist on board the
Isle of Inishmore. Salvacion Orge had just
begun working as a beauty therapist on the ferry, but the company
ended her contract by closing down the service following queries
about the wages she was being paid. She refused to disembark from
the vessel. A meeting took place on the
29
March 2005 and after two hours of
negotiation between her management and the trade union SIPTU, Ms.
Orge was granted €24,000. The crew on board the ferry also made a
collection for her totalling around €1,000.
The next day she flew
from Dublin to the Philippines
and was reunited with her three teenage
children.
On the
19 September Irish Ferries
offered voluntary redundancy packages to its 543 seafaring workers
on its Irish Sea services on the Dublin-Holyhead and
Rosslare-Pembroke routes.The firm states they couldn't continue to
operate with high fuel costs and increasing competition from rival
shipping operators and low-cost airlines. The statement went on to
say the situation had deteriorated this year with a 9% drop in the
Irish Sea car passenger market and rises of up to 50% in the cost
of fuel.
The decision by Irish Ferries to outsource
crewing on its Rosslare to France
routes
earlier this year led to a strike and demonstrations in
France.
In late
November 2005, the
outscourcing of the crewing of two Irish Ferries vessels commenced
and the contractors employees came on board. This led to a standoff
between the management and the Irish Ferries crew and an intense
political debate in Ireland.
On the 9th
December 2005 a nationwide
day of protest was called by the Irish Council of Trade Unions
against the company's actions. Over 100,000 people were said to
have participated, including 40,000 in Dublin. The protest stopped
all public transport for over four hours.
The dispute was ultimately resolved via the Irish Labour Realtions
Commission with a legally binding agreement reached between the
company and the trades unions involved.
Fleet
Ships under charter to other companies
Former ships
| Ship |
Years in service |
Gross Register Tonnage |
Status as of 2008 |
|
1978 - 1981
1982 - 1997
|
|
Scrapped in Alang , India ,
2007 |
|
1982 - 1997 |
|
Since 2002 sailing as C.T.M.A. Vancancier for
Coopérative
de transport maritime et aérien |
| MS Normandy |
1998 - 2007 |
|
sold to Equinox Offshore Accommodation and currently chartered
to the Morocco-based Ferrimaroc |
References
- Fakta om Fartyg: M/S OSCAR WILDE i Fredericia
10/10-2007, retrieved 12. 10. 2007
External links
- Holyhead
flag, registered in Limassol
.
- Bilbao
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