A few years ago it was proposed at one of the Dublin Branches meetings that it would be a good opportunity with the changing of the Commanding Officer in the Dublin Unit Naval Service Reserve (DUNSR) to work more closely with the Irish Naval Association (INA) . With this in mind the Secretary of the Dublin Branch John Graham contacted the C/O of the DUNSR with the proposal to award the best Recruit in the DU in recognition of his contribution to the Unit. The C/O of the DU Lt Cdr Martin Durcan saw this as a very positive move and was very enthusiastic from the outset.

Due to the Corvid - 19 this was put off a number of times due to lockdowns and Cathal Brugha Barracks not been available for our meetings , it was decided to hold a small ceremony outside with all safety precaution in place.
The venue selected was the Seaman's Memorial on City Quay. Our national PRO Mr Terry Cummis put out a request for ideas. Mike Haynes the Limerick Branch Secretary came back with the idea of a Statuette of a Seaman .Mike sourced the Statuette got it engraved with words from the CO of the DUNSR and got it posted up Dublin. The Statuette arrived in Dublin and the Ceremony took place on Wednesday the 22/12/21 at 1300 Hrs. The recipient was a lovely young man called Nabin Bhandari he is a Ordinary Seaman (OS) in the Dublin Unit.He has taken part in Operation Fortitude the Defence Forces Response to Covid -19. He has also served on patrols with various Naval Ships over the last two years. I would like to thank the following for taking part in todays Ceremony LT Cdr Martin Durcan who said some nice words about Nabin, SCPO Keith White, Nabin Bhandari, Brian Farrell Vice Chair of the Dublin Branch INA who presented Nadin with a envelope with some cash in it, Our National PRO Terry Cummins Alan Ryan and myself who presented the Statuette. We were very lucky with the weather as it had been raining very heavy all morning but it had stopped in time for the Ceremony. I would hope in the future that this would become a annual event and would be held in the Barracks.