Irish Naval Service as a permanent component of the Irish Defence Forces. The Naval Service purchased three s from the United Kingdom in 1946 and 1947. The tradition of naming Irish Naval Ships after figures in Celtic Mythology began, and the ships were named , and . These three ships were to become a key part of the Naval Service in the 1950s and 1960s. The first formal training of Irish naval cadets took place at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, UK in 1947. In 1970, "Cliona" and "Macha" were withdrawn from service and scrapped, leaving "Maev" as the sole ship in
Structure of the Royal Navy in 1989 affiliated with universities and in 2018 were under the jurisdiction of the Commodore, Britannia Royal Naval College. 14 URNUs had been founded in 1967 and the late 1980s each URNU received one Archer class patrol vessel as dedicated training vessel. However, as four of the 14 Archer vessels went to the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service it is unclear how many URNUs were still active in 1989. The Flag Officer Reserves was a Rear Admiral based in Whitehall, who was responsible for recruitment and training of the Royal Naval Reserve. Each Royal Naval Reserve Division had one River-class minesweeper from the