A cargo ship, linked to the Russian ghost fleet, which has been investigated for suspicious activity in the Baltic was spotted by an Irish Air Corps aircraft dropping an anchor close to an undersea cable in Irish waters.
It has emerged that the incident earlier this year occured in waters off the north east coast. The Air Corps had dispatched an aircraft to monitor its movements as it is a list of Russian related vessels.
There has been several incidents in the Baltic Sea where anchors, dropped by Russian linked vessels, have damaged critical internet cables.
The Air Corps was able to film the ship, dropping the anchor in the area, and following communication from the Irish crew the cargo vessel fled. It was not confirmed if the ship was intentionally targeting undersea infrastructure or if it was a case of bad seamanship.
The ship, sailing under a flag from Caribbean region, had been in trouble in the Baltic Sea in the same month. German authorities escorted it out of the area along with Swedish and Danish naval colleagues.
On that occasion she was sailing from St Petersburg en route through the waters near Gotland, an island off Sweden.
The sighting of it in Irish waters was made earlier this year and it was being monitored after intelligence was shared from a friendly nation with the Irish State.
An Irish Air Corps maritime patrol vessel was despatched to keep watch – it is understood that they recorded it, using specialist camera equipment, as it dropped the anchor.
It is understood the ship was contacted by radio by the Irish Defence Forces and directed to haul its anchor back up and it departed the area.
The Journal has learned that the ship is back in Irish waters and is heading towards the west coast.
It is understood that the ship has steamed from the Bay of Biscay and is currently off the Cork and Kerry coast.
Using an open source flight monitoring service The Journal was able to follow an Air Corps CASA 295 aircraft which went to a location near the ship this afternoon.
This publication has previously revealed that Ireland held a major exercise behind closed doors to test how Ireland will deal with a complete loss of the internet after a targeted attack.
It is understood that the event, known as a tabletop exercise, was held in February and involved multiple Government departments and agencies including the Defence Forces, An Garda Síochána and other emergency services.
The scenario was a concerted cyber attack which was combined with the loss of multiple undersea cables.
There are a large amount of fibre optic internet cables connecting Europe to the US and other parts of the world running through Irish waters. They carry all high speed internet traffic, including banking and other critical data.
Shoot these ships immediately. Sink them. No more fucking around. Anchor near cable? Boom.
From a moderator standpoint, I got to say: First, please don’t repeat the same comment all over the thread. I am human, and get tired of reading your ‘toxic logic’. Second, executing a human being without a process (justice) is something more akin to ‘our enemies’. Thirdly, I’d like to politely invite you to reflect upon your words. War has a time and place, these ships could very well be people that were bribed out of need, your suggestion only makes sense in a battlefield. Inciting violence in this context is like spreading Russia propaganda. Consider this a warning (as I see it, you’re breaking our rules).
On another comment you say you’d bring a knife to a fist fight… keep in mind the other person could pull a gun. And, if you had a gun, then they have 2 machine guns… I hope you understand my point. Although I doubt seriously that you’ll really do anything else than taking it literally. Good luck in life.
Shot across the Bow, send boarding party, take over and sail to convenient port for confiscation of cargo. Auction off ship and cargo, use the revenue to repair damages and to support Countries currently under military attack by Russia.
This would be better for the environment
Nah that leads to expensive cleanup.
arrest the crew, detain the ship, sell it. Use proceeds to pay for increased defence expenditure and/or donate to Ukraine.
The literal only reason russia does these provocations is because it is the only thing russia can get away with without being turned into a glass mine. We have been at a shadow war with russia for a while and they just gained 50 oblasts. It is very much us vs them situation and us who live in ex soviet countries know it very well.
Yeah I agree don’t shoot the ship because of oil spill. But kill the captain in my opinion and arrest the crew for many years. It has to be dangerous to cut sea cables, otherwise they’ll never learn. Short of shooting the ship or killing the captain, I see no other way.
But I’m pissed off and hate Russia so I might be biased.
I don’t think randomly shooting people without any evidence or trial is a good idea. Unless they’re the likes of trump/putin and everyone around him and put into office by him. Cause that is tyranny and protected under 2nd amendment.
I mean… apparently we can tell when the ships have their anchor down. Because the plane could notice it… so if there is an anchor down, near a cable, shoot the captain.
Idk what else to say. Obviously don’t just shoot random ships. Only if they have their anchor down near sea cables.
Also the 2nd amendment is a joke. If not now, then when? When will someone finally kill trump, musk and Vance? Asking for a friend.
You need some kind of due process.
Many freight captains would have no clue where cables are.
No. I do not. I need for everyone who controls a ship to know that anchors near sea cables mean certain elimination.
Treat it like an act of war. If we would blow up a Russian railway like or telephone cable that would be construed as one, surely.
Yes, but since the offending country 1: has nuclear weapons and B- keeps saying “whoopsie didn’t mean to pinky promise” everyone just throws up their hands and says “well they claim it was an accident so just bump the sanctions 2% and call it a day” rather than the literal acts of war that they would be in any other context.
It’s like watching what’s happened in the US happen on a global scale.
We all know things are being smashed on purpose with the intention of making life difficult for other people, yet nobody is doing a goddamn thing to stop it.
And just like in the US, I’m sure there are plenty who would absolutely love to row out and try to stop it themselves but a large ship is just gonna steamroll a small one. I would love to row out and start some shit with the ships cutting cables. But by myself, I’m getting crushed without a second thought, and tons of people will watch on and go “well what did they expect all by themselves they should have gone out in force as a group if they wanted to really put a stop to it. Now I gotta go post a Facebook update saying I stand in solidarity with the cable”
I’ll let the readers sort out this metaphor.
I just think, kill the captain. Like drive there with a small boat, snipe him, take it over. Then do whatever.
It can’t be the status quo that they can pull this shit without consequences. Make it known that it’s deadly for the captain and crew (if there even is a crew, they probably just send one person to fuck the cable) to pull this bullshit.
Maybe they’ll learn (they won’t but at least it’s one less captain).
God I hate Russians so fucking much tbh.
”I’m the captain now!”
Purposely destroying our infrastructure is an act of war. So that would be the appropriate response.
Maybe, but sane people don’t want to escalate something that could lead to a war.
They should absolutely do something but we are tip-toeing around mines here. So let’s at least think before we start running.
We are at war and have been for years. There doesn’t have to be bombs dropping for that to be the case.
Yeah kinda has to be bombs dropping for there to be war proper. And we really don’t want that to happen.
Russia says it’s not their ship, so I can be boarded and seized
Yes, and we have boarded them.
I was referring to destroying the ships.
Or
Free ship. Arrest crew.
Kill captain and detain crew. Make it dangerous to pull this bullshit.
Unfortunately, that would cause dangerous debris near the cables. Let them leave first, then do what you want somewhere safer.
True and also it would probably cause oil spill. Didn’t think about that. But still. Just shoot the captain then lmao.
russian ship near a cable: “sink them”
USA ship and warplanes all over the place: nobody gives a fuck
https://www.itamilradar.com/2025/03/18/unusual-us-activity-over-the-black-sea/
Trust me. I give a fuck. You can be glad that I have no political power. Because I would order to shoot down anything and everything that enters here without permission.
It’s interesting because in Ireland there are discussions about maintaining the historical neutrality, with one of the pro neutrality points being that it is not an interesting enough target to be attacked. But given that it’s a major data center in Europe, it appears that it is a tasty target for sabotage.
Now just hear me out.
Trump and Musk are in bed with Putin.
Putin props himself up on his elbow as he takes the last drag of his cigarette, the sheet carelessly exposing his right nipple. He looks deeply into Trump’s eyes, a coquettish grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Guys, guys. What do you think would happen if something were to happen to a lot of those intercontinental data cables?”
Musk giggles and says, “The walls are talking to me. Or is it that gargoyle in the corner?”
Putin rolls over to his other side to gaze lovingly into Musk’s eyes, while Musk ignores him to stare in awe at various nonexistent things he sees around the room. “But Musky,” he slowly trails one finger from Elon’s belly button down in the direction of his crotch, “those can take a long time to repair. They’ll need something that doesn’t require those cables. And, cough we have something like that, don’t we?”
Trump says, “Remember that time when the hand of God saved me from that bullet at the very last moment? Many people, everyone really, couldn’t stop talking about how valiant I looked. Plymouth Valiant - great car. Some say the best car, the very best. They are all saying it. From the moment that car stopped being produced it was all downhill, just like a river flowing downhill. Did you know the liberals don’t like rivers? Because the Rio Grande makes it harder for the illegals to come here from Mexico. Why is it spelled like that? Where did that “e” come from? What does Rio mean anyway? You know we should rename it, like we did the Gulf of America. It could be the River of America, and that would really be grand, everyone’s saying it. We could find a way to set it on fire, that might be easier than building a wall. You know you can get fire from water, it’s not that hard really, I saw it coming out of faucets in Michigan - we should learn how they did that and just do it to the Rio Grand-”
Putin says, “OK, so we are agreed.”
He lovingly kisses them both on the mouth, savoring the flavor of Trump on Musk’s lips just a moment, pulls the sheet up close in modesty, and runs from the room on his tiptoes with a brief giggle, wondering which admiral he should call first. He nearly trips over JD Vance, who is curled up with his collar and leash near the threshold.
Do you write any other horror stories?
One man’s horror is another man’s maga porn.
Man do you have a camera in Putin’s bedroom or what?
Absolute cinema, yet likely non-fiction.
Wars in the this century are won by making your victim think that they’re not under attack and that you’re not a real threat until it’s too damn late to react.
From what I recall more or less what Sun Zi (Sun Tzu) recommended 2500 years ago.
Putin and Russia realized long ago that they can’t play on our level. And instead of trying to improve, they decided to sabotage the others to not look as bad compared to them.
So very tired of Putin’s bullshit…
It there ANY reason that a ghost fleet exists other than avoiding EU law?
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These ships are shit for the environment as well. Old, unsafe and uninsured vessels. Decreases safety at seas. The loopholes used to operate like this needs to be filled. Not just to prevent sabotage and making the seas safer, but to shut down circumvention of sanctions.
Of course. Terrorist state. I hope more and more politicians will understand this
Arrest those fuckers.
The Russian navy seems so incompetent I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was an accident
Only if you ignore the fact it was already in trouble with the Germans doing the same thing.
My bet is the oldest person on that boat is 22.
I just hope Russia’s deniability is less plausible then they would like to have it.
Looks like Russia is looking for more sanctions. Is there anything we haven’t tried yet? @Keener
Sinking the fuckers
But that would be an escalation! 😱
Remember, only Russia is allowed to pull bullshit. The west must not escalate no matter what happens! Nuke us? Be prepared for a very strongly worded condemnation!
God I hate our pussy leaders. Nothing against pussies but come on…
There would be no escalation if all the airspace-ignoring planes were shot down and the ships were seized and confiscated. Historically there hasn’t been whenever the bluff has been called.
The way to deal with the bully at school is not to let them keep bullying while you have the councillors and teachers listen to the obviously fake heartfelt apology and how the bully is from a bad background. The solution is to have the kids organize and hit back. Russia has never, ever understood or respected anything but violence and strenght. West doesn\t understand that russia is a stupid, stupid country and does not have the intelligence for diplomacy.
That’s what I’m saying bro/sis. All these years, every time I see the headline of Russian aircraft violating European airspace, I was like „shoot that shit down without hesitation“. See how long they’ll keep doing it after all their shit gets shot down. Fuck Russia. Honestly fuck Russians in general. Horrible country and rude people (with some exceptions). Absolute joke of a nation.
If I was bullied at school, I would have probably stabbed my bully lol. I’m not exactly a rational and level headed person. I would be the one to bring a knife to a fist fight. Because I didn’t ask for the fight so I’ll do whatever to defend. Don’t pull bullshit and nothing happens. Pull it and something happens for sure.
Blockade.
Not a single link to any official press release of the Irish navy in the article, or to any other source for that matter, no mention of any names of . This “newspaper” (with a whopping 900 followers on Twitter) is the only media reporting on the incident that I’ve been able to find, making claims that a ship dropped the anchor “in the vicinity” of an internet cable.
Come on, guys, please be critical and analyse the sources of information that you use
They are one of Irelands most respected, award-winning publications: https://www.thejournal.ie/justice-media-awards-the-journal-5797291-Jun2022/
They’re also among the most popular: https://www.thejournal.ie/you-like-us-you-really-like-us-4677500-Jun2019/
They have 9,800 followers on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejournal.ie
Edit: Just coming back to my initial reply to note that this guys entire post and comment history is all pro-Russian talking points and anti everything else.
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It’s unusual to see language like “it is understood that”, but they do name the Irish Air Corp as the witnesses of the events. I wouldn’t rule this out yet.
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You do know that this isn’t the first time Russia has been messing with our cables, yeah? They’ve done it with other nations too so if you think this is scaremongering then you’re either not paying attention or acting in bad faith. I’m assuming the latter.
By the way, you’re wrong anbout annother thing: other publications (The Guardian and the Irish Mirror) did cover the incident. They refer to the source as a “friendly nation” so it’s obviously security related.
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looks good to me https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/thejournal-ie/
As I answered to another commenter, the article is shit and unsourced anyway
