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 In 1970, "Cliona" and "Macha" were withdrawn from service and scrapped, leaving "Maev" as the sole ship in
Douglas Evill Douglas Evill Air Chief Marshal Sir Douglas Claude Strathern Evill, (8 October 1892 – 22 March 1971) was an Australian-born Royal Naval Air Service pilot and squadron commander during the First World War. Serving in the Royal Air Force between the wars, he was a senior air commander during the Second World War. Douglas Evill was born on 8 October 1892 in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. After receiving a private education in England, Evill studied as a cadet at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, before attending the Britannia Royal Naval College in Devon.