The EU proposal to ban eel fishing on Lough Neagh and close the Toome eel fishery might spell the end of a centuries-long battle between the lough’s eel fisherman and authorities that has raged since the last Gaelic lord, Hugh O’Neill, was stripped of his fishing rights after the Nine Years War. Yet the EU is up against a daunting adversary: Fr Oliver Kennedy has spent the past 50 years as commander-in-chief of the lough’s fishermen, seeing off threats from the High Court in London, Unionist paramilitaries, Ian Paisley, Terence O’Neill and environmental organisations. His Lough Neagh Fishermen’s Co-operative Society is the largest commercially viable wild eel fishery in Europe, with an annual turnover of £2 million (€2.3 million) and an impressive processing facility where eels that are caught in the morning are packed and flown out that day, and can be on sale, smoked, in Holland the following morning. In 2011 the co-operative’s eels were granted EU “protected geographical identity” status, like champagne or Parma ham. Eel baron was not the role Fr Kennedy foresaw in the seminary in Maynooth, but on being appointed curate of Toomebridge on the shores of Lough Neagh in 1961, he found the community in turmoil. Locals who relied on eel fishing were being threatened by bailiffs of an Anglo-Dutch company which had bought the fishing rights and forbade them to sell to anyone but the company, at low prices and in limited amounts. There was sporadic violence as desperate fishermen confronted bailiffs. Prosecutions and court challenges followed, but, legally, ownership was held by the Shaftesbury estate which had leased the rights to a foreign company. They had been handed down through aristocratic families since Charles II granted them to Lord Donegall in 1661. “Although I was a mere country curate,” Fr Kennedy told the BBC in 2007, “there was a major social problem and I felt that as a priest I had a commitment to do what I could to resolve the issue.” Though he knew nothing about eel-fishing, he learned fast, managing to galvanise his parishioners into raising enough money to acquire a shareholding in the Anglo-Dutch company, giving Fr Kennedy a seat on its board of directors. Within seven years his fishermen’s co-op had won complete control of the fishing rights. By 2000 turnover was £5 million a year, but eel numbers in the Lough were dropping. Eight years later turnover had halved and it has continued to fall. The fishermen receive roughly half, with the rest going to the co-op which oversees the granting of fishing licenses, monitoring of quotas, collection and transport of eels each morning to the sorting and packaging sheds, from where they are sent to Holland, Germany and Billingsgate in London. 1 2 Next > Sat, Jun 1, 2013, 05:00 First published: Sat, Jun 1, 2013, 05:00 0 Comments (0) We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Standards. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or by filling out this form. New comments are only accepted for 10 days from the date of publication. Sort By: No items at this time... ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Taste Irish Food Fair at Dublin airport Margaret Griffin picking blackcurrants to make crème de cassis. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Currant affairs Stefan Griesbach (on the right), with Vladimir Mazur and Marie Kavanagh at the Gannet Fishmongers stall at Galway Farmers’ Market Gannet flies away with award Food, Glorious Food Our bumper recipe collection Food, Glorious Food Our bumper recipe collection Irish Times Life & Style Reviews Restaurant Wine Seaweed rapture Damascus Gate, 10 Upper Camden St, Dublin 2 Getting mezze The Happy Pear, Main Street, Greystones, Co Wicklow
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 04:39:57 +0000
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