The Irish Merchant Navy Memorial in Dublin commemorates the seamen who died while serving on Irish merchant ships during the Second World War, a period known in Ireland as the Emergency. The memorial stands on City Quay at the corner of Lombard Street East and consists of a granite monument with an anchor set in front, placing it firmly within Dublin’s docklands and its long maritime history.
The monument honors the crews who kept supplies moving to and from neutral Ireland during the war despite the dangers at sea. According to RTÉ, 16 ships were lost between 1939 and 1945, and 149 men died. The service of the Irish mercantile marine during those years became known among mariners as the Long Watch, a phrase that captured both the risk and the endurance of those voyages.
An annual commemoration is still held at the City Quay memorial in November, continuing the site’s role as a place of public remembrance. More than a docklands monument, it marks a wartime story in which Irish seamen helped sustain the country through years of isolation, shortage and uncertainty.