The launch of the Irish Larch comes after a difficult time for Scottish shipyard.
Irish Shipping Limited the Irish state owned deep sea shipping company formed during World War II for the purpose of supplying the country's import needs. Irish Shipping vessels were usually named after trees. In the early 1970s Irish Shipping Limited set up a joint venture with Reardon Smiths called Celtic Bulk Carriers and between them ordered 12 standard ships from Govan Shipbuilders Limited in Glasgow. The ships were referred to as Clyde class and one of them was the Irish Larch.
The Irish Larch built for Irish Shipping Ltd at Govan Shipbuilders in Upper Clyde was launched by Mrs WA O'Neill, wife of Irish Shipping's general manager designate.
The ship will go into service in July and is the fourth bulk carrier built for Irish Shipping Ltd at the shipyard. The others being Irish Pine, Irish Maple and Irish Oak. The order for the four bulk carriers was placed with Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in 1970 and when the shipyard went into liquidation in 1971, the Irish Shipping vessels figured prominently in trade union negotiations for the reorganisation of the yard.
Jimmy Airlie, the convenor of shop stewards and chairperson of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in committee when it was formed in 1971. He says that the staged work-in was politically important as it mobilised public opinion. He believes that the yard would not have survived without the work-in.
We put the government in a very dicey political situation.
Jimmy Airlie recalls the early negotiations with Perry Greer of Irish Shipping Ltd and the government.
Launching the ship Mrs WA O'Neill says,
I name this ship 'Irish Larch'. May God bless her and all who sail in her.
Chairman of Irish Shipping Ltd, Perry Greer and Chairman of Govan Shipbuilders Lord Strathalmond explain how there is now light at the end of the tunnel for the shipyard.
Lord Strathalmond says,
If Irish Shipping hadn't stayed with us, Govan Shipbuilders wouldn't be alive today.
Perry Greer is pleased with the four ships which he said that they got for a good price. Asked why the ships were not built in Ireland, he says that while Irish Shipping has a policy of supporting home industry, there were no available shipbuilders.
Upper Clyde Ships were the right ships for our jobs.
This episode of 'Tangents' was broadcast on 5 April 1973. The reporter is Kevin O'Connor.
