Like the rest of her class, she was originally designed for use by the British Royal Navy in Hong Kong waters, and was delivered in 1984 by Hall, Russell & Company as HMS Swallow (P242).

[1] The ship was passed to the Irish Naval Service in 1988 and was commissioned under her current name by the then Taoiseach Charles Haughey on 16 January 1989.

[2] In Irish service, the ship took her name from Saint Ciara, born in Tipperary in the 7th century who, after taking religious vows in her teens, founded a convent in Kilkeary, near Nenagh.

[5] Throughout her career, LÉ Ciara has been involved in fisheries protection patrols as well as search and rescue missions.

[6][7] In 2011, the vessel was temporarily taken out of service to address an issue with the hull,[8] and was again kept out of commission for several months in mid-2014 for removal of asbestos.