Des Branigan: Seaman, archaeological diver and maritime historian

Des Branigan, who has died at the age of 98, was a socialist, seaman, archaeological diver and maritime historian. A leading trade unionist, he risked his life at sea to ensure essential supplies were brought to Ireland during the second World War.

In 1941, when British ships would no longer transport goods to and from a neutral Irish state, Branigan was one of a group of young seamen who sailed to Portugal on the Palgrave Murphy-owned City of Dublin to collect the first vessel acquired by the State's newly formed Irish Shipping company.

The Greek-owned Vassilios Destounis, which Branigan later described as a "rust bucket", had been salvaged by Spanish fishermen after it was abandoned in the Bay of Biscay following an attack by a German bomber. The ship was renamed the Irish Poplar and taken to Lisbon, as it was said the Spanish authorities would not deal with Branigan due to his support for the republicans in the Spanish civil war. It arrived back in Dublin laden with cargo.

Branigan often said his tough exterior was the result of a tough upbringing in Dublin’s North Great George’s Street, where he was born. The family moved to Sheriff Street and then to Finglas, and one of his earliest memories was of being taken on his father’s shoulders to hear union leader Jim Larkin address a crowd of workers.

He went to sea at a young age, becoming an able seaman and then quartermaster with a British passenger liner firm. He served on ocean-going salvage tugs, which were prime targets during the second World War, and maritime historian Cormac Lowth recalls his many accounts of rescuing ships which had been torpedoed in the north Atlantic, but not sunk.

In 1942, 33 of his fellow seamen in Irish Shipping died when the Irish Pine was torpedoed and sunk by a submarine in the north Atlantic.

Branigan became heavily involved in the trade union movement after he came ashore in the 1950s. As a delegate of the Irish Seamen and Port Workers’ Union, he once recalled he had to resort to “using his fists as well as his brain”. He rose to union secretary, campaigning for protection of dock workers and provision of adequate shelter, washing and toilet facilities.

Ended in litigation

Efforts were made to oust him from the Marine Port and General Workers’ Union, as it became known in 1955. After the Seamen’s Union of Ireland was formed, an attempt by Branigan to form a separate union ended in litigation, and he lost his home in Terenure due to the heavy legal costs.

Branigan was convinced powerful interests were thwarting his efforts, and hired a bodyguard. Close associates say that such was his influence within staff working with the shipping industry and on Dublin’s docks that he was monitored by the Garda Special Branch and MI5.

He became the Marine Pilots’ Union representative and Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) adviser from January 1966 to February 1983. Branigan had become an early member of the Maritime Institute of Ireland, proposing Ireland should become the base for international air/sea rescue.

Working in marine salvage in the 1940s gave him a taste for diving and he worked in the late 1960s with the Welsh amateur diver Stanley Wignall to locate the 1588 Armada wreck Santa Maria de la Rosa in Blasket Sound, in Co Kerry. He also helped discover the wreck of the German ship, Aud, which was scuttled outside Cork harbour after an unsuccessful attempt with Roger Casement to land arms for the 1916 Rising.

Rights to the wreck

Branigan was still actively diving in the 1980s when he and a group from Dublin University Sub Aqua Club located a ship called

The Aid

off the Wicklow coast, which had foundered off Wicklow Head while carrying ancient artefacts from Italy for Lord Cloncurry in 1803. Branigan acquired the rights to the wreck of the

Leinster

which had been sunk by a German submarine on October 1918 while bound for Holyhead with the loss of 501 lives.

Branigan had recognised the need to protect Ireland’s rich marine archaeology and campaigned, with historian Dr John de Courcy Ireland through the Maritime Institute, for appropriate measures. The National Monuments Amendment allowed for imposition of heritage orders and vested ownership of wrecks over 100 years old.

After his retirement from Ictu, he continued to do arbitration and advisory work through his own companies, including Marine Research Teo. His personal and political interests included support for the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, and he met African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela when he was awarded freedom of the city of Dublin in 1990. In his 80s, Branigan took a degree in maritime studies at St Andrew’s University in Scotland.

He received the Order of Merit from the Spanish government for his research into the Spanish Armada in Ireland, and renewed his involvement with the Maritime Institute of Ireland – becoming its honorary president from 2000 to 2003. During that term, he lobbied for funds to rebuild the Dún Laoghaire mariners' church which houses the National Maritime Museum. He also co-edited a research journal, Iris na Mara with Tim Magennis.

Branigan’s constant rage against inequality kept him active, and he used his free travel pass to travel to Bord Pleanála oral hearings in north Mayo in support of the community opposed to the Corrib gas pipeline. He commissioned research from Lloyd’s of London on the frequency of gas pipeline ruptures ranging from accidents to fatalities, worldwide. He lobbied for a museum of emigration to be built on Dún Laoghaire’s Carlisle pier.

He built up an extensive library, housed with the support of close friend Andrew Bonar Law in Ballsbridge. It was damaged during flooding of the river Dodder. He was passionate about writer Robert Burns and, latterly, Chinese history and culture. Irascible and often uncompromising, he spent his final years in Ballsbridge and then Beechfield Manor nursing home in Shankill. He was predeceased by his wife Anna and his daughter Sile, and he is survived by his sons, Desmond Jnr and Donal, daughter-in-law Ann, grandson Reuben, and three great grandchildren.