MS Isle of Inishmore is a ro-ro ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 owned by Irish Ferries and operated on their Rosslare

Rosslare Europort

Rosslare Europort is a modern seaport located at Rosslare Harbour in County Wexford, Ireland, near the southeastern-most point of Ireland's coastline, handling passenger and freight ferries to and from Wales and France....

-Pembroke

Pembroke Dock

Pembroke Dock is a town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, lying north of Pembroke on the River Cleddau. Originally a small fishing village known as Paterchurch, the town was greatly expanded from 1814 onwards following the construction of a Royal Naval Dockyard...

 service. At the time of its introduction, it was the largest car ferry operating in Northern Europe. It is named after Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands

Aran Islands

The Aran Islands or The Arans are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. They constitute the barony of Aran in County Galway, Ireland...

. The name of the ferry is tautologous, since "Inishmore" derives from the Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 for "big island".

Design and construction

Isle of Inishmore was constructed by Van der Giessen de Noord

Van der Giessen de Noord

Van der Giessen de Noord was a shipyard that mainly built ferries, located in Krimpen aan den IJssel, a town in the western Netherlands. The yard was especially suited to the construction of large vessels due to its developed undercover facilities....

 in Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, at a cost of IR£

Irish pound

The Irish pound was the currency of Ireland until 2002. Its ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the usual notation was the prefix £...

60million. Construction commenced in December 1995, and the vessel was launched in October 1996. It was delivered to Dublin in February 1997, before entering service in March 1997.

Power is provided by four Sulzer

Sulzer (manufacturer)

Sulzer Ltd. is a Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm, founded by Salomon Sulzer-Bernet in 1775 and established as Sulzer Brothers Ltd. in 1834 in Winterthur, Switzerland. Today it is a publicly owned company with international subsidiaries...

 diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

s. Each round trip between Rosslare and Pembroke requires 25 tonnes of marine diesel oil.

Isle of Inishmore's sistership, Stena Jutlandica

MS Stena Jutlandica

The Stena Jutlandica is a Swedish registered Passenger / Vehicle / Train ferry owned and operated by Stena Line. The vessel operates between Gothenburg and Frederikshavn....

, operates between Gothenburg and Frerikshavn. She has less passenger accommodation.

Onboard facilities

Passenger accommodation includes cabins for up to four people. Cabins are provided with an en-suite shower room. The vessel also offers a number of catering facilities and seating areas. The Club Class lounge, located on the top deck, is available at an additional cost to the passenger and offers complimentary refreshments and reserved seating. Also available are shopping facilities and a video game arcade.

Career

Isle of Inishmore began its career on Irish Ferries' Dublin

Dublin Port

Dublin Port is Ireland's biggest sea port. It has both historical and contemporary economic importance. Approximatively two-thirds of the Republic of Ireland's port traffic goes via Dublin Port...

-Holyhead

Port of Holyhead

The Port of Holyhead is a ferry port in Anglesey, Wales, handling more than 2 million passengers each year. Stena Line and Irish Ferries sail from Holyhead to Dublin and Dún Laoghaire in Ireland, forming the principal link for surface transport from north Wales and central and northern England to...

 route as the flagship of the company's fleet. Following the introduction of the larger onto the route in March 2001, Isle of Inishmore was redeployed to the Rosslare

Rosslare Europort

Rosslare Europort is a modern seaport located at Rosslare Harbour in County Wexford, Ireland, near the southeastern-most point of Ireland's coastline, handling passenger and freight ferries to and from Wales and France....

-Pembroke

Pembroke Dock

Pembroke Dock is a town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, lying north of Pembroke on the River Cleddau. Originally a small fishing village known as Paterchurch, the town was greatly expanded from 1814 onwards following the construction of a Royal Naval Dockyard...

route.

Incidents

• On 30 July 2008 a fire broke out on the Isle of Inishmore at Pembroke Dock at approximately 02.30am. When the fire was detected in a thermal oil boiler located adjacent to the engine area of the vessel. The function of the boiler is to preheat the oil used in the ships. The ship was getting ready to sail for Rosslare at 02:45am. Some 227 passengers and 89 crew were on board at the time. All passengers and crew were put on standby. At 4:20am the fire was brought under control. Nobody was injured. The 02:45am Pembroke-Rosslare and the 08:45am Rosslare-Pembroke were both cancelled as a result of the fire onboard.