Medals for heroes who kept supply lines open

For Sheila Fritzson, receiving the award was like her father "had come to life again". Karl Fritzson, a Latvian by birth, was aboard the Irish-registered merchant ship, the St Fintan, when it was bombed by German planes over the Bristol Channel in 1941.

Sheila was just two at the time but yesterday she accepted a medal and certificate in recognition of his service to the State during the second World War.

Some 24 medals were presented on behalf of the Government at the ceremony in Dublin to men who served at sea on Irish-registered vessels during the war. Six were presented to the men themselves while 17 were awarded to relatives, posthumously to relatives.

Ms Fritzson, remembers her father arriving home in Dublin from sea, "coming into the street and all the kids running to see him".When his ship was lost at sea, her Irish mother moved her and her four siblings to London, "to get work and look after us".

Though the post-war government deemed that a medal and certificate should be awarded to all seamen who served for at least six months of the war, up until 1998 these were sent to the men or their families by registered post. Following a campaign by Mr Peter Mulvaney, grand-nephew of one of yesterday's recipients, the medals are now awarded at ceremonies.

The medals are applied for by either the former seamen themselves or their families and presented by the Department of the Marine about twice a year.

Mr Mulvaney accepted a medal and certificate on behalf of his grand-uncle, Mr Patricio McCarthy - the only Argentinian lost on an Irish ship.

Mr McCarthy had been born in Argentina to Irish immigrants who returned to Ireland while he was still a child, in 1906. He was aboard a cargo ship, the Leukos, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Tory Island on March 9th, 1940.

"Today is the fulfilment of a promise I made to my mother three years ago," said Mr Mulvaney.

The Argentinian ambassador, Mr Victor Beauge, attended yesterday's ceremony.

Mr Desmond Taylor, who served as radio-officer on a wheat cargo ship, the Irish Alder in 1944, collected his own award.

"We travelled from Cork to Canada for wheat on a small, old ship not really suited to North Atlantic runs. But I was 18, looking for adventure and didn't really comprehend the enormity of the danger," he smiled yesterday. "This means an awful lot to me," he said showing his medal.

Presenting the awards, the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Hugh Byrne, said the debt of gratitude the State owed those men who served at sea, keeping supply lines open during the war, "must never be forgotten".

Their efforts "greatly helped minimise the sacrifices our people had to make in those times," he said.

More than 150 men lost their lives on Irish-registered vessels between 1939 and 1946. These included 18 British, a Latvian, a Norwegian and an Argentinian.