An Irishwoman's Diary

HE PROMISED to "boldly go where no man has gone before", and Capt James T Kirk is back on the big screen in Star Trekthis month. But whatever happened to the real Capt Kirk, a man who came to prominence in these waters when he threw down a gauntlet to Britain at the time of Europe's emerging common fisheries policy?

He wore a collar and tie under his oilskins, smoked a pipe, and he was a conservative member of the European Parliament. The fact that Kent Kirk was also a dashing Dane may have helped him no end when he caught the attention of the world’s press in 1982 for a ceremonial breaching of Britain’s national coastal limits.

The protest did him no harm. He became a Danish government minister, serving two terms, but remained committed to the coastal sector, making an impassioned plea in support of young catchers, when EU Commissioner Joe Borg visited Denmark several years ago.

It’s hard to imagine the same happening here, although current junior fisheries minister Tony Killeen is regarded by coastal communities as a very welcome and committed exception. Over the past few months, the Clare TD and former primary school teacher undertook visits to almost every major fishery harbour on this island while undergoing medical treatment. Many (though not all) of Mr Killeen’s predecessors have tended to come and go with audible sighs of relief on the next high tide.

For more than 40 years, one journal has recorded those changing fortunes, and here I have to declare an association, as a former cub reporter with the publication. “How Dean Swift knocked the fish trade”, “EEC grabs 79 per cent of Ireland’s Fish: island status not recognised” and “Tally-ho!” were just some of the many headlines which appeared over reports from the Irish Skipper, now published in DVD format by its proprietors, Foilseachán na Mara Teo, with the support of the Heritage Council.

The "tally-ho!" reference was recorded in March 1965, the year after the journal's founding by Arthur Reynolds. The Killybegs trawler, Brother's Hope, recorded a rare catch off Donegal's St John's Point the previous month – the carcase of a fox.

“But when a member of the crew got the bright idea of sending in its tongue to claim the 10 shillings bounty, it was discovered that it had already been taken”, the report said.

Later the same year, the journal carried a translation of a Le Figaroreport on Killybegs fishermen. The Naval Service patrol ship Clíona had arrested several French vessels and brought them in to the south Donegal port. The French were sore about their treatment: "you would think that you were back in the good old days of the buccaneers", the translation said.

“In order to understand, if not excuse, the vindictiveness of the Irish, you have to realise that the fishermen of the north-west of the island are, more than any others, very touchy about respect for their territorial waters,” the report continued.

“They exploit, in the old-fashioned artisan manner, this coastal zone, rich in fish, and are constantly anxious to protect it against trawling by boats from the Continent on an industrial scale.”

The French vessel owners advised the skippers to “hoist the Breton flag”, the report noted as this might win them some “sympathy” in the Border region.

There’s much, much more: heartrending reports of death at sea and community response to loss, scientific reports on new techniques, photographs of earnest young male and female skippers and deckhands qualifying at Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s training centre in Greencastle, Co Donegal, as well as analyses of Irish successes abroad.

There’s even a far-sighted proposal by Fergus Cahill, then with the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards, for a study of all of our offshore resources. The Norwegians had adopted a “tough bargaining position with the oil companies”, resulting in a projected annual income of around $100 for every man, woman and child, he said in early 1973.

“The effect of a like sum on the Irish economy would be, for instance, to reduce income tax by roughly two-thirds,” he said. Mr Cahill is now chairman of the Irish Offshore Operators’ Association.

• Copies of the Irish Skipper 1964-2006 are due to be presented this month to the Greencastle Maritime Museum in Inishowen, Co Donegal, for library use.The archive is also available for €50 directly from the journal, at Foilseachán na Mara Teo,Teach na Rosann, Anagaire, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.