The largest container ship to ever visit Ireland docked in the Port of Cork this morning to deliver its cargo of over five million bananas - at least one for everyone in the country.

The Liberia-registered MV Northern Dedication arrived at the Deepwater Berth in Ringaskiddy at 3.30am after sailing from Central America.

The first of the banana containers being unloaded this morning/ Photo by Aidan Fleming

The 230m-long ship with a deadweight tonnage of 42,121 tonnes is carrying over over 75 containers of fresh fruit - predominately Fyffes bananas but also some pineapples and melons. Each container can fit 100,000 bananas.

And it won’t take long to unload all that lovely fruit - the ship is due to depart at around 3pm this afternoon.

Largest container ship to ever visit an IRISH port calls to @PortofCork (Friday)over 5million fyffes banana onboard pic.twitter.com/9LD8PaFjWq — Port of Cork #Keepingtheshowontheroad (@PortofCork) April 7, 2016

Port of Cork Commercial Manager, Captain Michael McCarthy said they hope to see more vessels of this size in the future:

“There are very little restrictions at Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth, so when it comes to handling a vessel of this size, the port is more than capable. In the future we would hope to see more of these size vessels calling, as our port expands".