She was a tender to the ocean liners off Cork Harbour long before she became a training vessel. Built in Dublin in 1961 she was designed to carry up to 1,000 passengers though regulations were not that strict in those days.

In the 1980s she was acquired by the Cork Regional Technical college as a training ship for what would subsequently become the National Maritime College but as time passed she became obsoelte and the college now has a state of the art facility at Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork with the most up to date simulators taking the place of Cill Airne.

She was part off the "furniture" of Cork Port for over 40 years and is sadly missed here.

Cill Áirne is now a floating restaurant in Dublin.