- Yes
- No
The Samuel Beckett class is a class of Irish offshore patrol vessels designed to replace the Emer class Emer and Aoife which now serves in the Nigerian and Maltese navies respectively. These boats mainly serve for fishery protection, search and rescue as well as boardings. Currently, the Samuel Beckett class is the largest vessel class in the Irish navy.
These vessels were designed by Vard Marine Inc and used what they learnt from the Róisìn class vessels. The vessels were all built by Babcock Marine Appledore. Each vessel is named after Irish playwrights and novelists breaking from the tradition of names after folklore characters.
Table of vessels below:
In 2015 Samuel Beckett deployed to the Mediterranean as Ireland’s contribution to the response of the ongoing migration crisis. Samuel Beckett managed to rescue over 1,000 people, including 111 in one UN operation.
Beckett would redeploy in 2016, bring the total number of saved migrants to 2,310.
In November 2016, James Joyce intercepted and boarded the trawler FV Margiris as part of a fishery protection operation.
On the 25th of March 2020, a burglary occured on George Bernard Shaw.
During the coronavirus outbreak, the Irish navy handed over Samuel Beckett and William Butler Yeats to the HSE to be used at labs docked at Galway.
In September 2023, William Butler Yeats intercepted MV Matthew and seized around €173 million of cocaine.
In 2024 November 15th, James Joyce would escort a ship suspected to be a Russian spy vessel out of the Irish sea.
In December 1st 2025, Samuel Beckett was involved in a security operation after suspected Russian drones were spotted in North East Dublin.
As of writing, all vessels remain in Irish service. The class is expected to receive CATPAS-1 towed array sonar in 2027 in light of subsea threats.
Specifications:
Crew- 54
Armament- 1x 76mm Oto Melara cannon, 2x Rh 202 cannons, 2x 12.7 Browning HMGs and 4x 7.7 GPMG (also has electro optical fire control)
Displacement- 2,256t
Top speed- 43kmh (2x engines with 7,300hp each)
Length- 90m
Beam- 14m
Draught- 3.8m
George Bernard Shaw sailing
Sources: