The Northern Ireland Squadron was a unit of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. It was established during the conflict in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

known as

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

to interdict the movement by sea of illegal arms for paramilitaries and to provide other material support for anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland. It existed from 1969 to 1998.

History

In 1969 the Royal Navy established the Northern Ireland Squadron which was deployed during The Troubles 969–1998to prevent paramilitary organisations moving illegal arms by sea and to support anti-terrorist operations in the province. In 1993 the squadron was moved to HM Naval Base Clyde, aka

Faslane Naval Base His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The squadron's disbandment was announced on 23 March 2005 as part of the process of normalization which follows the 1998

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

.Commons debate - 22 March 2010
/ref> The last three ships of the squadron, the Hunt-class ships , , and , were decommissioned on 19 July 2005, just a few days before the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

completed the decommissioning of its weapons and called off its armed campaign.

Components

In 1993, the s, , , , and were assigned to the Northern Ireland Squadron where they replaced s. In 1998 the River-class vessels were replaced with (MCMVs).

Notes

References

Royal Navy page on HMNBC
redirects to Royal Marines front page

Navy News article on decommissioning
dead link
page includes photos of last NIS ships
dead link {{Squadrons of the Royal Navy, state=collapsed Royal Navy squadrons The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Military units and formations in Northern Ireland Military units and formations disestablished in 2005