One of the first IRA attacks on British ships since the Irish War of Independence was carried out against the Royal Navy fast-attack patrol boat HMS Brave Borderer, which was damaged by gunfire from a Boys anti-tank rifle in September 1965 while paying a visit to Waterford, Republic of Ireland.

[1] Another noteworthy operation against a British ship took place in April 1971, when the Royal Navy motorboat Stork was towed outside the port and blown up by the IRA off Baltimore, also in the Republic.

[2] In Northern Ireland itself, two civilian coal ships, Nellie M and St Bedan, were boarded, bombed and sunk by the Provisional IRA between 1981 and 1982 in Lough Foyle.

The same source claimed that the total cost of the auxiliary ship was £130 million and that the operation showed the ability of the IRA to keep up its pressure on British forces.

[6] The IRA statement remarked: "We will not accept a colonial power adding insult to injury to the Irish people in occupied Ireland by using the Six Counties for con[s]tructing military machiner[y]."