In October 2006 the Swansea Cork Ferries ceased sailing after the company was unable to procure a replacement vessel following the sale of the M/V Superferry, which had served the route for almost 20 years.

Initially it was expected that Swansea Cork Ferries would restart the service but this failed to materialize after the preferred vessel (the Christian IV) was sold to a rival bidder. In addition, citing various legal reasons, the Irish government refused to financially help with the resurrection of the route. In April 2008 an online campaign was launched by John Hosford and Adrian Brentnall at bringbacktheswanseacorkferry.com. The campaign generated huge public interest, and a consortium was formed that behind the scenes were looking at financial options and the sourcing of a ship. The two parties came together during 2008 and a fresh momentum was brought to the crusade.

By December a bank had agreed to fund 60% of the start-up costs, an operator had been found, and four ships had been identified as suitable candidates. The ports of Cork and Swansea had agreed to support the route with discounted start-up incentives while Fáilte Ireland and Cork County Council had also agreed to finance a marketing package. In January 2009, the Former Stela Lines vessel Julia (which also sailed as Colour Lines Christian IV and Olau Britannia) was again the prefer ship, following the colapse of Stella Lines.

However the consortium was short €3million. The consortium formed a co-operative society, inviting people to invest €10,000 each, with the hope of finding 300 private investors in Cork, Kerry and Swansea. Following a month of fund raising, the target was reached and the management team entered necogiations for the purchase of the Julia with the Finnish bank (Akita Savings Bank). The memorandum of agreement was signed with the bank on the 3rd April 2009, and will be put to the 300 co-op shareholiders unamiousy agreed to the purchase of the Julia on April 7th at an AGM in Skibbereen, West Cork.

Continuing hold up in the Finnish courts however lead to the decision being taken on May 5th to launch the service on March 1st, 2010 as it was felt that there was not enough time to launch the service intime for summer 2009. It is also hoped to run an advertising campaign at Christmas 2010, and made some slight modifications to the Julia before she enters service as the Innisfallen.