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Cumann na nGaedheal, sea fishing and west Galway, 1923–32

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh
Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh*
Affiliation:
Centre for Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College Dublin
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Extract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the British government made a vigorous effort to ameliorate poverty in the west of Ireland. In 1891 the Congested Districts Board (C.D.B.) was established, with an array of special powers to promote economic development in the west. It recognised that land could only play a limited role in development due to its generally poor quality, but that sea fishing had significant potential. Nowhere was this more obvious than west Galway, where the majority of people were farmer-fishermen, living either on the islands or along a coastal belt on the mainland because fishing offered some compensation for inadequate land. Sea fishing in west Galway was, however, for the most part primitive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 141 , May 2008 , pp. 72 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2008

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References

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14 See Report of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries on the sea and inland fisheries of Ireland; for 1907, pt. I, xiv [Cd 4298], H.C. 1908, xiv, 16; Brody, Inishkillane, p. 75.

15 Micks, Congested Districts Board, p. 45.

16 Report of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries…for 1907,pt. I, xi [Cd 4298], H.C. 1908, xiv, 13.

17 Scott, Galway hookers, p. 69. The nobby was most popular in west Galway, and Connemara-built nobbies ranged in length from forty to forty-seven feet, and in weight from thirteen to twenty tons.

18 Irish Farmers’ Journal, 9 Aug. 1969; O’Donnell, Galway, p. 95.

19 Irish Land Commission (Fisheries and Rural Industries) (transfer of functions) order, 1928: statutory rules and orders, pp 9–12. The Dún Aengus was replaced by the Naomh Éanna in 1958 (Dáil Éireann deb., cclxx, 903–4 (14 Feb. 1974).

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22 This is not to suggest that non-Irish boats had never fished off west Galway: ‘The Carew MSS contain an interesting “Description of Connaught” prepared in the year 1614 by Sir Oliver St John, in which he drew attention to certain fishing vessels in Irish waters. He stated as regards the fishing off the Aran Islands: “The English, Bretons and Portugalls (in times past) had a great trade of fishing here for cod, ling, hake and conger which would continue still if it were undertaken.”’ (A. E. J. Went, ‘Foreign fishing fleets along the Irish coasts’ in Cork Hist. & Arch. Soc. Jn., liv (1949), p. 20).

23 Coull, J. R., The sea fisheries of Scotland: a historical geography (Edinburgh, 1996), p. 218Google Scholar. This was not the first time that Scottish fishing vessels had exploited Irish waters. In the late seventeenth century, it was judged that Scottish boats had profited so handsomely from the Irish herring fishery that ‘in 1667 the Irish government prohibited the importation of linen cloth and commodities from Scotland’ (Went, ‘Foreign fishing fleets’, p. 22).

24 Brunicardi, Sea Hound, p. 6.

25 Kilroy, Story of Connemara, p. 81.

26 O’Dowd, Claddagh, pp 96–7.

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29 Ibid., pp 16, 91.

30 Ibid., p. 18.

31 Ibid.

32 Report of Gaeltacht Comm., p. 47.

33 Connacht Tribune (henceforth, C.T.), 18 Jan. 1930.

34 Report of Gaeltacht Comm., p. 47.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Breandán Ó hEithir discussing pre-independence fishing with an Inishmore fisherman in the 1960s, Oileáin, TG4 (28 Dec. 2002).

38 Micks, Congested Districts Board, p. 46.

39 Daly, M. E., The first department: a history of the Department of Agriculture (Dublin, 2002), pp 53-4.Google Scholar

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41 Henry, Maurice (ed.), Fruits of a century (Dublin, 1994), p. 51Google Scholar; Robinson, Oileáin Arann, pp 15, 50.

42 Robinson, Oileáin Árann, p. 15; O’Flaherty, Liam, Skerrett (6th ed., Dublin, 1998), p. 29.Google Scholar

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48 Brunicardi, Sea Hound, pp 22, 44.

49 De Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, p. 85.

50 Memo on fishery loans (N.A.I., DM A5/483/35 E 2).

51 Ibid.; Dalgleish, British fishing, pp 20–1.

52 Twenty-ninth report of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for the period 1st April, 1920, to the 31st March, 1921, p. 17 (this report was published in 1922 and therefore, unlike the twenty-eighth report, is not referenced as a British parliamentary paper); Report of the Department of Fisheries, 1927, p. 10.

53 Information from the Report of the Department of Fisheries for the years 1923–25 reproduced in the Cork Examiner, 8 July 1927.

54 Department of Fisheries, p. 21.

55 Freeman, T. W., Ireland: a general and rural geography (London, 1969), p. 187.Google Scholar

56 Micks, Congested Districts Board, p. 56; Bolger, Patrick, The Irish Co-operative Movement: its history and development (Dublin, 1977), p. 328.Google Scholar

57 Department of Agriculture file concerning charges for fish conveyance, 30 June 1923 (N.A.I., DA 92/2/1898).

58 See, for instance, C.T., 31 Mar. 1923.

59 Memo on fishery loans (N.A.I., DM A5/483/35 E 2).

60 Report of Gaeltacht Comm., p. 47.

61 29th report of Congested Districts Board, p. 87.

62 De Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, p. 61.

63 Ibid., pp 90–1.

64 The Constitution of Sinn Fein, as adopted by the ard-fheis on 25 October 1917, cited in Gadhra, Nollaig Ó, Civil war in Connacht 1922–1923 (Cork and Dublin, 1999), pp 155-7.Google Scholar

65 Hoctor, Daniel, The department’s story: a history of the Department of Agriculture (Dublin, 1971), p. 118Google Scholar; Daly, First department, p. 118.

66 Hoctor, Department’s story, p. 118. Hoctor states incorrectly that Etchingham was the representative for Wexford when he was appointed director of fisheries. He actually became the Sinn Féin representative for Wexford after the 1921 general election, taking his seat on 16 August, which was ten days before his removal from the directorship. He served as secretary for fisheries from then until 1 September 1922.

67 See Réalt A’Deiscirt/Southern Star, 28 Apr. 1928.

68 Regan, J. M., The Irish counter-revolution 1921–1936: Treatyite politics and settlement in independent Ireland (Dublin, 1999), p. 82Google Scholar; Daly, First department, p. 103.

69 Biographical details given in the Kerryman, 13 Feb. 1932.

70 Regan, Irish counter-revolution, pp 93–4.

71 Memo from Department of Finance to Department of Lands and Fisheries, 24 June 1929 (N.A.I.,DMAl/64/35).Google Scholar

72 De Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, p. 93.

73 The seventh part of the schedule in the 1924 Ministers and Secretaries Act deals with the responsibilities that the Minister for Fisheries took over: Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction-Fisheries Branch, Congested Districts Board for Ireland-Fisheries Branch and Rural Industries Branch and the Conservators of Fisheries (see Dáil Éireann deb., vi, 1510 (28 Feb. 1924)).

74 Fanning, Ronan, The Irish Department of Finance 1922–58 (Dublin, 1978), p. 194.Google Scholar

75 Report of Gaeltacht Comm., p. 50.

76 Department of Fisheries, p. 28.

77 Ibid.; Scott, Galway hookers, p. 71.

78 Department of Fisheries, p. 20.

79 Ibid.

80 C.T., 21 July 1923.

81 Gaeltacht Commission: minutes of evidence taken before Coimisiún na Gaeltachta, August 30, 1925, pp 1–3.

82 Mac an Iomaire, Shores of Connemara, p. 105.

83 Gaeltacht Comm.: minutes of evidence … August 30, 1925, p. 3.

84 Robinson, Oileáin Árann, p. 15; Freeman’s Journal, 16 Sept. 1924. It should be noted that there was also altruistic Scandinavian interest in Inishmore. In 1925 one Knud Hausken, a septuagenarian with an address at Kilronan, sought permission, as a foreigner, to fish within the three-mile limit in order to tutor islanders in the ‘newest method’ (Hausken to Lawrence Moriarty, 18 May 1925 (N.A.I., DM A3/10/7)).

85 Gaeltacht Comm.: minutes of evidence…August 30,1925, pp 1, 3; Gaeltacht Comm.: minutes of evidence … August 31, 1925, p. 12.

86 Minister for Fisheries to Galway Chamber of Commerce, reproduced in C.T., 24 Nov. 1923.

87 Manchester Guardian Commercial: European reconstruction series: Ireland, sect. 3, 26 July 1923, p. 32; Réalt A’Deiscirt/Southern Star, 11 May 1929.

88 Gaeltacht Comm.: minutes of evidence …August 30,1925, p. 2.

89 See Dáil Éireann deb., v, 1441–4 (5 Dec. 1923). Figgis was participating in the debate on the third stage of the Ministers and Secretaries Bill.

90 De Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, p. 97.

91 Dáil Éireann deb., v, 1442 (5 Dec. 1923).

92 Ibid.

93 Report of Gaeltacht Comm., pp 38–9.

94 Dáil Éireann deb., viii, 1899, 1906 (22 July 1924).

95 Ibid.

96 Irish Land Comm., pp 8–10.

97 Moriarty, Lawrence to Doolin, Walter, 14 Oct. 1929 (N.A.I., DF S027/0023/29).Google Scholar

98 Report of Gaeltacht Comm., p. 50.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid., p. 46; Saorstát Éireann. Census of population 1926, cited in New hist. Ire., vii, p. 68.

101 Dáil ireann deb., xxiii, 737 (2 May 1928); Gaeltacht Commission: statement of government policy on recommendations of the commission, p. 26. Both Lynch and the government refer to the loan scheme under art. 67.

102 Brolcháin, Aodh Ó, ‘Fisheries’ in Saorstdt Éireann Irish Free State official handbook (Dublin, 1932), p. 128Google Scholar; Gaeltacht Comm.: statement of policy, pp 29–30. The ‘competent authority’ is set out under art. 82.

103 Daly, First department, p. 103.

104 C.T., 23 May 1925.

105 Irish Times, 31 Oct. 1927; Scott, Galway hookers, p. 46; Feeney, Marie, The Cleggan Bay disaster… (Glencolumbkille, 2001), p. 26Google Scholar. The Irish Times inaccurately estimated the number drowned in Cleggan Bay, stating that twenty-six had been lost. A north-west wind is generally amongst the ‘most suitable winds for fishing’ (ÓDálaigh, ‘Memories of fishing’, p. 113).

106 Irish Times, 31 Oct. 1927; Dornan, Brian, Mayo’s lost islands: the Inishkeas (Dublin, 2000), p. 270.Google Scholar

107 ’Relief for the west. President Cosgrave’s appeal for help for fishermen. A national fund?’, 2 Nov. 1927 (N.A.I., DT S 5145).

108 Feeney, Cleggan Bay, p. 44.

109 Tipperaryman and Limerick Recorder, 10 Dec. 1927; Feardorcha Ó Conaill, Dublin Broadcasting Station, to Diarmuid Ó hÉigeartaigh, 10 Nov. 1927 (N.A.I., West Coast Disaster National Relief Fund (henceforth, W.C.D.N.R.F.), Box 3, G2, 13W); James Ferran to President Cosgrave, 5 Nov. 1927 (ibid., W.C.D.N.R.F., Box 3,12).

110 Feeney, Cleggan Bay, p. 79.

111 John Healy, W.C.D.N.R.F., to Mgr McAlpine, 10 Dec. 1927 (N.A.I., W.C.D.N.R.F., Box 3, MC3, 15W); Villiers-Tuthill, Twelve Bens, p. 171. The committee also included Fr John Diskin, parish priest on Inishbofin.

112 Dependants’ assessment forms, Rossadillisk no. 3, 17 Nov. 1927, and facsimile of ‘Particulars of tentative payments to dependents for March, 1928’, 29 Feb. 1928 (N.A.I., W.C.D.N.R.F., Box 3, MC3, 15W).

113 Report of the sea and inland fisheries for the years 1926,1927 and 1928, P 304, p. 33.

114 Schedule of fishery loan arrears, 1 May 1924 (N.A.I., DM A5/380/35)Google Scholar; Molloy, John, The herring fisheries of Ireland (1900-2005): biology, research, development and assessment (Oranmore, 2006), p. 6.Google Scholar

115 Robinson, Tim, Connemarapart 2: a one-inch map (Roundstone, 1990)Google Scholar; Galway county rateable valuations, Clifden rural district, Silerna electoral division (Galway County Libraries, Island House, Galway county rateable valuations, row 2, bay 8, shelf 5, p. 46); Galway county rateable valuations, Clifden rural district, Cleggan electoral division (ibid., pp 6–8).

116 Feeney, Cleggan Bay, pp 48–9.

117 Ibid., p. 33; interview with Dr Ciarán Ó Cuaig of Kilkieran, County Galway (2 June 2004).

118 Rossadillisk no. 3 (N.A.I., W.C.D.N.R.F., Box 3, MC3, 15W).

119 Feeney, Cleggan Bay, pp 17–18.

120 Ibid., p. 49; Ciarán Ó Cuaig interview; Cullagh, Richard Mac, The Irish currach folk: ‘life on the western seaboard from Galicia to Greenland’ (Dublin, 1992), pp 90-1, 93.Google Scholar

121 Nuallain, Peadar Ua to DrRyan, James, 15 June 1934 (N.A.I., DM A1/22/34); Réalt A’Deiscirt/Southern Star, 7 Jan. 1928.Google Scholar

122 Feeney, Cleggan Bay, p. 48.

123 C.T., 5 Nov. 1927.

124 See Tipperaryman and Limerick Recorder, 5 Nov. 1927.

125 Moriarty, Lawrence to Healy, John, 13 Apr., 9 July 1928 (N.A.I., W.C.D.N.R.F., Box 3, M9, 77)Google Scholar; Department of Lands and Fisheries memo, 16 Oct. 1928 (ibid.).

126 Report of sea fisheries conference 1927, pp 10–13.

127 Ibid.; de Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, pp 96–7.

128 Moriarty, Lawrence to Houlihan, John, 28 Sept. 1926 (N.A.I., DF S101/0008/26).Google Scholar

129 C.T., 29 Mar. 1924.

130 Ibid., 10 May 1924.

131 Ibid., 10 May 1924, 8 Aug., 10 Oct. 1925; de Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, p. 97.

132 C.T., 29 Mar. 1924.

133 Dalgleish, British fishing, p. 32.

134 Réalt A’Deiscirt/Southern Star, 14 Mar. 1928.

135 Sea fisheries conference, pp 4, 11; memo on organisation of fishermen in the Saorstát, pp 10–11, 2 Nov. 1927 (N.A.I., DT S 2298).

136 See O’Flaherty, Skerrett, p. 130, for a literary portrayal.

137 Gaeltacht Comm.: minutes of evidence … August 31, 1925, p. 6.

138 C.T., 8 0ct. 1927.

139 Brolcháin, Aodh Ó, to Branch, Accounts, Department of Fisheries, 19 Aug. 1927 (N.A.I., DM A5/388/35)Google Scholar. In The house of gold (London, 1929), Liam O’Flaherty parodied Martin Mór McDonogh as Ramon Mor Costello, a tyrannical capitalist (see esp. pp 124–5).

140 Memo on organisation of fishermen, Mar. 1927, pp 2, 11 (N.A.I., DT S 2298).Google Scholar

141 Cork Examiner, 8 July 1927.

142 hÉigeartaigh, Diarmuid Ó to O’Flanaghan, Denis, 30 Nov. 1927 (N.A.I., DT S 2298).Google Scholar

143 Ibid.

144 Cork Examiner, 20 May 1929.

145 Irish Times, 20 May 1929. The by-election had been occasioned by the death of the Fianna Fáil T.D. Samuel Holt.

146 Cork Examiner, 20 May 1929.

147 O’Halpin, Pádraic, ‘The evolution of state enterprise in Ireland’ (Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College Dublin, 1976), p. 199Google Scholar; memo from Department of Agriculture to Roinn Dlighe (Attorney-General’s department), Oct. 1936 (N.A.I., DM Al/68/36). The S.F.A. was registered officially under its Irish-language title, Comhlachas lascaigh Mhara Shaorstáit Éireann, Teoranta (MacKenna, Edward S.F.A., to Twomey, Daniel, Department of Agriculture, 8 Oct. 1935 (N.A.I., DM Al/23/36)).Google Scholar

148 Sea Fisheries Act, 1931, pp 7,9; Dáil Éireann deb., xxxvi, 829–30 (3 Dec. 1930).

149 The Sea Fisheries Association of Saorstát Éireann, Limited: rules, 1930; Seanad Éireann deb., xiv, 331 (18 Dec. 1930); C.T., 1 Mar. 1930.

150 Boland, H. P., Department of Fisheries, to Brolcháin, Aodh Ó, 20 Nov. 1930 (N.A.I., DMA1/42/34).Google Scholar

151 Clare Champion, 25 July 1931.

152 Statement of issues from voted moneys made to the S.F.A., by way of grants-in-aid and repayable advances, Oct. 1936 (N.A.I., DM Al/68/36).Google Scholar

153 Ibid.; draft of memo from Aodh Ó Brolcháin to J. J. McElligott, 1 May 1929 (N.A.I., DMA1/64/35).

154 De Courcy Ireland, Sea fisheries, pp 100–1.

155 S.F.A. rules, p. 8.

156 O’Donnell, Galway, p. 1.

157 Gaeltacht Comm.: minutes of evidence … August 31, 1925, p. 7.

158 ‘Preliminary draft of the Sea Fisheries Co-operative Association Bill’, 24 Aug. 1929 (N.A.I., DM Al/64/35); memo on sea fisheries of Saorstát, 20 July 1933 (ibid., DT S 2301).

159 ‘Sea Fisheries Co-operative Association Bill’ (ibid., DM Al/64/35).

160 Ibid.; Gaeltacht Comm.: statement of policy, p. 26 (art. 66).

161 C.T., 25 May 1929; memo on sea fisheries (N.A.I., DT S 2301).

162 Draft of proposals for sea fishing, 1 May 1929 (ibid., DM Al/64/35).

163 Memo on fishery loans (ibid., DM A5/483/35 E 2).

164 Dáil Éireann deb., xxxviii, 2491 (4 June 1931).

165 Memo from Aodh Ó Brolcháin to J. J. McElligott, and schedules A, B, C, 13 Oct. 1931 (N.A.I..DMA5/483/35D).

166 Memo from Ó Brolcháin to McElligott, 2 May 1932 (ibid., DM A5/483/35 El); statements of sums proposed to be remitted or written-off as irrecoverable under the Fisheries (Revision of Loans) Act, 1931, July 1936 (ibid., DM A5/632/47).

167 Varley, Tony, ‘Irish land reform and the west between the wars’ in Galway Arch. & Hist. Soc. Jn., Ivi (2004), pp 213, 220.Google Scholar

168 O’Halpin, ‘State enterprise’, pp 52–3; Mícheál O Fathartaigh, The government’s creameries: a history of the Dairy Disposal Company, 1927–1978 (in preparation).

169 Between 1923 and 1932 the Helga, rechristened the Muirchú (‘Sea-Hound’), remained the only dedicated patrol boat, and the debate on the Sea Fisheries (Protection) Bill was suspended by the 1932 general election. In nine years, the Muirchú made just nine recorded visits to west Galway despite the fact that its captain, David Thompson, had to come ashore to pursue foreign-vessel-incursion convictions (Dáil Éireann deb., xl, 2825–6 (16 Dec. 1931); log of the Muirchú, 30 June 1923–31 Dec. 1932 (N.A.I., Mercantile Marine Office, ships’ agreements, crew and logs, V7B-19-9-V7B-20-18). Assistant Inspector of Fisheries G. P. Farran was a marine biologist who had been recruited by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction and retained by Lynch’s department, and he did include a study of herring shoals in his general study of marine zoology (Farran, G. P., ‘The herring fishery in Eire, 1921–1944’ in Journal of the Department of Agriculture, xxxi (1946), pp 1–36Google Scholar; Thom’s official directory … 1926 (Dublin, 1926), p. 763; Brunicardi, Sea Hound, pp 107–9).

170 Kerryman, 13 Feb. 1932; Cullen, Joan M., ‘Patrick J. Hogan, T.D. Minister for Agriculture, 1922–1932: a study of a leading member of the first government of independent Ireland’ (Ph.D. thesis, Dublin City University, 1993), pp 21-2.Google Scholar

171 Dooley, Terence, ‘The land for the people’: the land question in independent Ireland (Dublin, 2004), p. 62.Google Scholar