Yesterday we learned that the Irish state is perfectly capable of detecting a Russian vessel in Irish waters, just so long as the vessel in question is designed and built to the stealth standards of the 1700’s.
The Schandart, per reports, is a replica of the original ship of the same name constructed by Tsar Peter the Great as the flagship of the Imperial Baltic Fleet in 1703. The original ship had a fairly unremarkable career, avoiding involvement in any major battles and being decommissioned by Peter’s wife and successor, the Empress Catherine, in 1724.
According to the ship’s current operators, she in essence operates today as a mixture between a pleasure craft and a living museum, mostly making appearances at naval festivals for the sorts of people who appreciate naval history. She is, of course, presently docked off Dublin, where she has inspired some controversy:
“The presence of the vessel has caused some controversy and Fine Gael TD Barry Ward, who is from Dún Laoghaire, has called on the Minister Timmy Dooley, the Minister for State for the Marine, to intervene and have the ship removed.
“These EU sanctions were put in place in reaction to the appalling atrocities carried out by Vladimir Putin and his administration and if we are to be serious about their implementation, we must adhere to them.
“In recent weeks, this ship was banned from entering a number of French ports including Saint-Malo, which will be familiar to many Irish holidaymakers. Going back further, there is an extensive list of European ports that have blocked or sought to block this vessel from entering their waters.
Assuming that the Irish Government was to eject the Schandart from Irish waters (one hopes for good prevailing winds) it would be the very definition of a performative act. Because the Schandart is by no means the only Russian vessel to have entered Irish waters in recent years. It is simply the only one that the Irish state has the ability to remove.
It is also the case that this particular Russian vessel is about the only ship under the (alleged) direction of the Kremlin’s Navy that does not and could not pose a security threat to the state. Weak and all though the Irish naval service may be, it is perfectly capable of out-gunning and out-manning a ceremonial pleasure craft. One of the Kremlin’s Borei-Class Nuclear Submarines, however, cannot even be detected, let alone ejected, from Irish waters without the assistance of NATO.
As ever in Ireland, the political outrage is in relatively inverse proportion to the threat.
Last week, when he was in Japan, the Taoiseach heard concerns from his Japanese hosts that undersea cables in Irish territorial waters were at risk and were lightly protected. The state’s response has been to acquire a towed sonar unit that can be attached to our naval vessels to patrol Irish waters seeking out hostile interlopers beneath the waves. Though in truth, the sonar in this case is of little use: Knowing the burglar is in your house is of little practical purpose if you carry no stick to deter him. The Irish Naval service is still in a position where it might be able to detect the presence of a submarine, but not in a position where it could do literally anything about a submarine.
But the good news is that if a hostile actor decides to invade Irish waters with a fleet of sailing frigates dating from the Napoleonic wars or earlier, we might just be able to beat our chests and deter them.
As to the merits of this particular issue: The decision, if it comes, to eject the Schandart from Irish waters will have more of the hallmarks of a cultural boycott of Russia than it will of any coherent military or economic strategy. Economic sanctions on Russia do not extend, so far as this writer knows, to blockading Russian ships from our ports or denying docking rights to ceremonial sailboats. Nor does the ejection have any clear or obvious military purpose.
Instead it is that most Irish of things: A performative and generic expression of disapproval towards anything Russian at all, in the presumed hope that this might encourage President Putin to re-consider his admittedly brutal and relentless, if not entirely efficient, assault on Ukraine. It is in the same family of symbolic Irish action as the Occupied Territories Bill, which is set to deprive Ireland of a few tonnes of avocados and the affection of various American boardrooms.
But of course, it makes our politicians feel important. We can have a nice national debate on the merits or demerits of Russian craft in our waters, even though our ability to restrict those craft (other than sailboats) is non-existent. We can kick up a bit of a fuss. We can pat ourselves on the back for moral superiority.
It is all very, very, tiresome.