It is with great sadness we learn of the death last Friday (20th February 2015) of Tipperary born former Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service, Commodore Liam Brett, of Glounthaune, Co. Cork and formerly of Lucan, Co. Dublin and Cappauniac, Cahir, Co Tipperary.
Mr Brett passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, while in the tender and compassionate care of the Sisters, Nursing and Care Staff at the Bon Secours Care Village, Mount Desert, Co. Cork.
Loving husband of the late Eileen (nee Twomey) and father of Bríd, Denise, Martin and Joseph; Commodore Brett will be sorely missed by his children for his love, life and leadership and by his son-in-law Seán, grandchildren Róisín, Deirdre and Gearóid Cottrell, Amy and Richard Brett, nieces, nephews, relatives and a wide circle of neighbours and close friends.
Commodore Brett’s internment will take place following 11.00am Requiem Mass at the Sacred Heart Church, Glounthaune, tomorrow, in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Little Island, Co. Cork.
Aged 86, Commodore Brett, during his lifetime, was central to the development of the Irish Naval Services, beginning when the Service commissioned the ‘LE Deirdre’ (1971) from the Verolme Dockyard in Co. Cork. Later under his watch the Naval Service would also acquire a further seven ships, thus allowing it to carry out Irish offshore patrols and fishery protection duties, following Ireland’s access to the then EEC.
Commodore Brett was also involved in the operation to recover the Aer Lingus Viscount aircraft that crashed off Tuskar Rock in 1967 and was involved in the recovery operation to raise the Air India plane which crashed into the sea off the West Cork coast in 1985. He played a major role in the interception, by three Naval Service ships, of the ‘MV Claudia’, latter bearing with guns, bound for the Provisional IRA, off Helvick Head in Co Waterford in 1973. Some eleven years later he was involved in a similar operation, when the ‘LE Emer’ and the ‘LE Aisling’ intercepted the vessel ‘Marita Anne,’ again with an arms cargo, off the Kerry coast.
Commodore Brett first joined the Naval Service in 1947, enjoying a 44-year career and rising to the rank of Flag Officer, prior to his retirement in 1990.
Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam dílis.
Leave a Reply