MARITIME MOSAIC

A busy scene overlooking Rosslare Harbour, with Blue Star 1, Stena Horizon and Brittany Ferries’ Cotentin in port, November 2021.

ROSSLARE FERRIES

Rosslare Europort, the ferry port in the south-east corner of Ireland, has hosted numerous different ferries over the past couple of years, as the impact of Brexit affected ferry operations between Britain and Ireland. The port is the regular terminal for services from Fishguard and Pembroke Dock, but during 2020 and 2021 was visited by a variety of ferries running services to European ports to enable freight to avoid the UK ‘landbridge’. Patrick Healy was on hand to photograph some of the visitors.

 Blue Star 1 berthing after a passage from Pembroke Dock. The 1999-built Irish Ferries ship has been a daily caller at Rosslare since April 2021, when she replaced the Dover-bound Isle of Inishmore on the twicedaily round-trip from Pembroke.

 The 2003-built Destination Gotland vessel Visby departing Rosslare on 15 May 2021 for Dunkerque. She has been on charter to DFDS since January 2021 on the Rosslare-Dunkirk route. She continues on the route but has been named Visborg since January.

 Brittany Ferries’ 2007-built ro-pax ferry Cotentin (22,308gt) approaching Rosslare on 13 November 2021, on the first arrival of the weekly Le Havre-Rosslare freight only service. Between 2013 and 2020 she was chartered to Stena Line for their service between Karlskrona, Sweden and Gdynia, Poland and was renamed Stena Baltica.

 Brittany Ferries’ Kerry arriving at Rosslare in September 2020 from Bilbao during the final weeks of her charter to Brittany Ferries. However, Kerry was not away from Rosslare for long. She returned in January 2021 as one of the three ships on DFDS’ RosslareDunkerque service. Her time in Rosslare ended in late September 2021 and she is now operating for Balearia on their Valencia-IbizaBarcelona service.  The 1980-built Stena Europe (ex-Kronprinsessan Victoria) has been a regular caller at Rosslare for more than 20 years, is the longest-serving ferry on the Irish Sea and has maintained the Fishguard service throughout the Brexit upheavals.  The 1997-built Pelagos (ex-Lagan Viking, Liverpool Viking, Liverpool Seaways) at Rosslare in May 2021 during a two-month charter to DFDS for the Le Havre-Rosslare service. She is currently operated by the French company La Méridionale.