China Crisis

Government sank plans to build Taiwan subs in Ireland

- Sean McCarthaigh

PLANS to build submarines in the early 1990s were scuppered by Government concerns that exporting vessels to Taiwan would upset relations with China.

State papers show the Government also opposed the project as it did not want Ireland to become a significant producer or exporter of military equipment.

Permission had been sought by Dutch business interests to construct submarines at the Cork Dockyard in Rushbrooke, previously the location of the Dutch-owned Verolme Cork Dockyard which closed in 1984.

Verolme was the Republic’s biggest shipyard and employed over 1,100 staff at its peak.

The submarine initiative had the potential to allow for a major expansion of the shipbuilding industry in Cork.