ICG’s first sailing was on May 17, 1968 from Roslare to Le Harve. It was a joint operation by Normandy Ferries (NF) (owned by P&O) and the shipping line Saga (owned by the Rothschild family). In its first season the service carried 31,000 passengers and in 1969 the service was increased to a twice-weekly sailing. […]

Stena Line can trace its history back to Sten Allan Olsson (Stena is a mix of his two first names), who founded a metal recycling company in Sweden, and in 1962 first entered the shipping industry when he took over the Gothenburg – Skagen (Northern Jutland) route from a Danish company, who marketed the route […]

The great liners often called into Queenstown (now Cobh) Cork on their way between Europe and the USA after calling onto French ports (Cherbourg and Le Harve). Brittany Ferries picked up on this in 1978 when they announced they were starting a service between Roscoff and Cork. The ship used would be the Armorique which [...]

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company’s organs can be traced back to 1815, and was granted a royal charter and capital of £1 Million in 1840. Then, a newly established London ship broking business, set up by Englishman, Brodie Willcox, who was later joined by Author Anderson in 1822. Their backing of the royal houses […]

The British and Irish Steam Packet Company (known as the B&I) was formed on July 27th 1836 after a group of Dublin businessmen met in the Commercial Buildings in Dame Street. On October 24th Articles of agreement were concluded between the investors, which included Arthur Guinness, James Ferrier (Transatlantic Steam Ship Company), Richard Williams and […]

Cork’s Welsh connection died in 1983. Tivoli had been abandoned as a passenger ferry terminal the previous year, and whilst few regretted the ending of the connection to Pembroke Dock, the loss of ferry services to Wales provoked a demand for someone – anyone to reinstate a ferry from Cork to Swansea. Cork Harbour Commissioners […]

Following the winding up of Swansea Cork Ferries, John Hosford and Adrian Brentnall set up a website, “Bring Back The Swansea Cork Ferry in April 2008, to high-light the loss of the service. In May, it was announced that the ship a number of groups had there eye on, the Christian IV was sold to […]

Keeping with the literary theme which began with the naming the of the fast craft Jonathan Swift, Irish Continental Group came up with another one for the books by announcing yet further new building on 8th July 1999, just days after the Dublin Swift service had begun. In the space of just seven years, the […]

At a recent Cork City Council meeting, it was decided that a monument should be erected in Cork, on Penrose Quay to almost the one million people who emigrated on the five ships that bore the name “Innisfallen,” (better know in Cork as D’Innis) who were run by the City of Cork S.P. Co and […]