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| - The Irish Mercantile Marine during World War II continued essential overseas trade during the conflict, a period referred to as The Long Watch by Irish mariners. Irish merchant shipping saw to it that vital imports continued to arrive and exports, mainly food supplies to Great Britain, were delivered. Irish ships sailed unarmed and usually alone, identifying themselves as neutrals with bright lights and by painting the Irish tricolour and EIRE in large letters on their sides and decks. Nonetheless twenty percent of seamen serving in Irish ships perished, victims of a war not their own: attacked by both sides, though predominately by the Axis powers.[citation needed] Often, Allied convoys could not stop to pick up survivors, while Irish ships always answered SOS signals and stopped to rescu
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| - The Irish Mercantile Marine during World War II continued essential overseas trade during the conflict, a period referred to as The Long Watch by Irish mariners. Irish merchant shipping saw to it that vital imports continued to arrive and exports, mainly food supplies to Great Britain, were delivered. Irish ships sailed unarmed and usually alone, identifying themselves as neutrals with bright lights and by painting the Irish tricolour and EIRE in large letters on their sides and decks. Nonetheless twenty percent of seamen serving in Irish ships perished, victims of a war not their own: attacked by both sides, though predominately by the Axis powers.[citation needed] Often, Allied convoys could not stop to pick up survivors, while Irish ships always answered SOS signals and stopped to rescue survivors, irrespective of which side they belonged to. Irish ships rescued 534 seamen. At the outbreak of World War II, known as "The Emergency", Ireland declared neutrality and became isolated as never before. Shipping had been neglected since the Irish War of Independence. Foreign ships, on which Ireland's trade had hitherto depended, were less available; Neutral American ships would not enter the "war zone". In his Saint Patrick's Day address in 1940, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Éamon de Valera lamented: Ireland was a net food exporter. The excess was shipped to Britain. The Irish Mercantile Marine ensured that Irish agricultural, and other, exports reached Britain, and that British coal arrived in Ireland. Some foods such as wheat, citric fruits and tea were imported. Ireland depended on, mainly, British tankers for petroleum. Initially Irish ships sailed in British convoys. In the light of experience they choose to sail alone, relying on their neutral markings. German respect for that neutrality varied from friendly to tragic. "Cross-channel" trade, between Ireland and Britain, was from both national perspectives, the most important Irish trade route. Irish ships crossed the Atlantic on a route defined by the Allies: a line from Fastnet Rock to the Azores and then along the line of latitude at 38° North. Ships on the "Lisbon-run", imported wheat and fruits from Spain and Portugal, as well as goods transhipped from the Americas. They followed the line of longitude at 12° West, while Allied convoys to Gibraltar were 20° West. There were never more than 800 men, at any one time, serving on Irish ships during the war. There are 149 names on the Seamen's Memorial. That is a higher casualty rate than many military units. They are remembered, each year, in ceremonies in Belfast, Cork and Dublin.
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