‘We’ve heard these promises before’: is this the end of the line for Irish fishing?

Devastated by quota changes post-Brexit, fishers are pinning all their hopes on Ireland’s politicians as they head into a general election

Words and pictures by Finbarr O’Reilly

Gale force winds gusting across the North Atlantic Ocean kicked up thick spumes of spray from the heaving swell soon after the Ocean Crest and Carmona trawlers left the main Irish fishing port of Killybegs in County Donegal. No other boats were fishing in the area when the storm swept over Ireland’s north-west coast. This was February, and the window for catching migrating mackerel was quickly closing but the two trawlers had yet to fill their quotas.

“This weather is about the limit of what we can fish in,” said skipper Gerard Sheehy as the nose of the Ocean Crest plunged into the trough of a swell, sending a wall of white water crashing over the hull and wheelhouse windows, momentarily obscuring the view before the vessel tilted back upwards into an oncoming wave.

Skipper Gerard Sheehy (centre) with his crew aboard the Ocean Crest in February

‘We’ve heard these promises before’: is this the end of the line for Irish fishing?

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