ANB Council to partner with veterans on wartime boat maintenance at Antrim Lough Shore

The Joyce on display Loughshore Park, Antrim

Antrim and Newtownabbey councillors have agreed to work with a group of veterans to help maintain a historic wartime boat that has been returned to the borough.

The Joyce — a 40-foot torpedo retrieval vessel which operated on Lough Neagh during the Second World War — is now on display beside The Gateway Visitor Centre at Antrim’s Lough Shore.

The restored craft was unveiled earlier this year as part of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s VE Day 80 commemorations in May.

During a meeting of the council’s Community Development Committee at Mossley Mill, Newtownabbey, on Monday evening, members heard that a local veterans’ group had expressed an interest in working with the council on “practical involvement, educational outreach and commemorative activity.”

A report to the committee recommended that the council enter into a partnership with the group to assist with the ongoing physical restoration and maintenance of The Joyce, as well as providing historical interpretation and engaging with visitors.

Speaking at the meeting, Antrim DUP Councillor Paul Dunlop BEM said:

“Since The Joyce has been brought back to the borough, it has found its home at the lough.”

He proposed accepting the recommendation, welcoming the opportunity for the veterans’ group to become involved.

“It is an integral part of Antrim Lough Shore,” he added.

The proposal was seconded by Ballyclare Ulster Unionist Councillor Vera McWilliam.

Built for the Royal Navy in 1943, The Joyce played a vital role during the Second World War as a torpedo recovery vessel. Operating from a test platform still standing on Lough Neagh, the boat was instrumental in retrieving Mk VIII torpedoes produced at the torpedo factory on Randalstown Road, Antrim.

It was designed and constructed by the Admiralty for use during test firings.

After being decommissioned by the Royal Navy and sold in 1960, The Joyce spent decades as a working boat in Weymouth, England, before being fully refurbished and preserved.

The vessel was made available to the council through Silvery Light Sailing, a Northern Ireland-based maritime heritage charity working in partnership with the Lough Neagh Partnership, after the owner wished to “gift the vessel to a good home” where it would continue to be preserved. The council formally acquired the boat in 2021.

Its return to Lough Neagh was supported by £10,000 in funding from the Department for Communities’ Historic Environment Division.

Previously, the committee approved almost £9,000 to provide in-water mooring and security for The Joyce at a jetty on the Lough Shore, including access control and railings, enabling it to be preserved as a permanent outdoor exhibit.