There was a gritty meeting in Longford last Thursday between the eel fishermen who make their living from the Shannon, and the ESB.
The extraction of eels from rivers in Britain and Ireland has been a controversial subject for nearly 1,000 years and has led to great conflict between the fishermen and the people who control the waters.
Taking an eel from Irish rivers was always regarded as something which should be monitored. Many's the good man was deported or hanged for taking an eel out of the Shannon, Erne or Lough Neagh.
Over the last 80 years, the number of fishermen taking eels from the Shannon has declined to fewer than 70 licensed fishermen.
The river has yielded only 70 tonnes of eels, and Shannon fishermen are extremely angry, because less than 80 miles from the source of their river Lough Neagh eel fishery delivers 700 tonnes.
According to Mr Micheal Flanagean, of the Shannon Eel Fisherman's Association, 400 fishermen make their living from eel-fishing on Lough Neagh.
He blames the fish pass at Ardnacrusha in Limerick, which keeps the young eels in the estuary rather than allowing them up to reach maturity and eventual capture in the Shannon.
He claimed at the Longford meeting that the Shannon system is stocked to only 10 per cent of its recommended levels, and that the Shannon could potentially support the same level of eels and fishermen as Lough Neagh.
The ESB controls fishing rights on the Shannon system, and he believes they are more interested in generating electricity than looking after the fish stocks.
"Before Ardnacrusha, there was a vibrant fishing industry, but that is gone now since the rights were given to the ESB in 1935 because the eels cannot move up the river without human intervention," he said.
"The company spent £5 million this year on corporate sponsorship trying to create the image that they are the great national benefactors, while we are being driven out of business," he said.
"If just a little bit of extra effort was spent on stocking the river and catching the young eels and putting them above the dam, life would be a lot easier for us," he said.
"Claims that the river has been over-fished is nonsense. There is nothing there for us to take," he said.
"They also said that this was a bad year for stocking the river, but the truth is that the Severn in Wales never had a better year.
"If the ESB does not want to be involved in fisheries, let it go to someone else. It is not fair to us," he said.
The remaining fishermen on the Shannon system would continue to protest over the lack of stocking until something is done.