GREGORY CONNEELY: ARAN ISLANDS fleet owner Gregory Conneely, who died recently at the age of 81, was one of the most accomplished fishermen of his generation on the western seaboard.
Described as a pioneer by his contemporaries, he is best remembered for surviving a serious accident at sea and for saving the lives of several crew in a separate incident. He trained a number of young Aran Islanders to become successful skippers – two of his sons, John and Gregory, and his daughter Clíona, among them.
He was born on Inis Mór as one of a family of nine; his father John was from the island, and his mother Margaret was from neighbouring Inis Meáin. He was educated on Inis Mór and, like many of his generation, he learned how to work with stone and had built his own two-storey house by the age of 18.
He was also an accomplished carpenter – a skill which he was to put to good use later during his ownership of a series of wooden fishing boats. Initially, however, he and two neighbours, Arthur Flaherty and Tom Madden, went to Milford Haven in Wales where they were hired as crew through agents on the pier.
Conneely's first berth was on the Ploughmanwhich fished from the Porcupine bank out in the Atlantic right up to the North Sea.
In 1958, he responded to an advertisement in The Irish Timesto participate in a Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) training programme for skippers. He spent three months at sea on one of three vessels which BIM had adapted, the Loch Laoi, and studied theory under the late Capt Liam Woolley in the Galway Technical School. He was one of seven to receive the first "second hand special" fishing competency certificates issued by the State, in April 1959, with his being ticket number two.
In 1961, he began fishing from Howth, Co Dublin, and it was then that he lost his leg in an incident involving fishing wire. It was a measure of his determination that he rarely spoke about it and continued fishing – initially (for a very short time) without an artificial limb – on the BIM-owned Ard Colum.
He had his own first boat, the Ard Aengus, built in Killybegs, Co Donegal, in 1964. He was ashore with his wife Maggie, helping with their newly born first child, when the vessel got into trouble off Inis Mór in 1968. He had a premonition, spotted the vessel in difficulty, and launched the Ard Colum, which had been purchased by his brother, John. In a terrific feat of seamanship, he saved all three crew before the vessel broke up in heavy seas.
Although he had lost his livelihood with the vessel, he bought the Ard Rahanfrom BIM in 1969. A year later, he acquired the Connacht Ranger,built in Killybegs, and between 1971 and 1975 he also acquired the Ard Chluainand had the Fort Aengus built.
He was an early member of the Galway and Aran Fishermen’s Co-Op in Rossaveal, and lobbied to have that harbour built west of Galway. He was chairman for a number of years and had a very steadying influence on young fishermen during the many challenging periods which the industry faced over past decades, according to close friend and colleague Bertie Flaherty.
“Gregory was also a man you would not get into an argument with,” Flaherty said, for he was always so well informed on every subject.
Founder and former editor of The Irish Skipperjournal Arthur Reynolds said he was a visionary, who identified the potential of the prawn grounds 100km northwest of the Aran Islands.
He was an avid reader of The Irish Times, travelled widely, and was at sea as recently as March 2011 when the Maggie C, fished by his son John and daughter Clíona, was taken to France for maintenance work. He visited most ports in Scotland and was in the Outer Hebrides in April/May 2011. He visited Norway in 1968 and again as recently as July 2011
He is survived by his wife Maggie, sisters Agnes and Peggy, children Gregory, Róisín, Barbara, Bernadette, Caitlín, Clíona and John and seven grandchildren, Clíona, Alanagh, Mya, Síona, Imogen, Cormac and Leia.
Gregory Conneely; born October 12th, 1930, died February 6th, 2012.
