The South Isles of Aran (County Galway)

THE ARAN FISHERIES.

The ignorance of our fishing population is thus deplored in the report of "the inspectors of the sea and inland fisheries of Ireland," 1887: —

"It is melancholy to find how deficient our coast population is in all these matters, and that the rising generation are left untaught in arts, from the exercise of which, wealth would be brought into our land, and industry, self-reliance, and temperance inculcated, while the seas around our island teem with fish; so much so that often, when a great capture occurs, quantities of fish are lost from the want of scientific knowledge as to the best means of curing; and, at the same time, Ireland is importing about 10,000 tons of cured fish annually, when she might be exporting double, or even treble that quantity.

"Thousands of pounds are also sent annually from Ireland to England, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, for nets and lines alone, the great bulk, if not all, of which might be kept at home, and our people profitably employed."[18 - Report of Inspectors of Irish Fisheries for 1887, p. 10.]

The following letter, from Sir Thomas F. Brady, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, Dublin Castle, on the Aran fishery, is worthy of note: —

    "11, Percy Place, Dublin, Dec. 5, 1886.,

"My dear Burke,

"I have your note here. There is a large number of open row boats and curraghs on the three islands of Aran, but that is their only mode of fishing; and they can only fish at short distances from the land, and cannot fish except in suitable weather. There is not a single first-class fishing vessel attached to the islands. The people are too poor to provide themselves with such, or obtain security for loans for such. There is one drawback to such vessels being kept, the want of proper harbour accommodation. There is a pier at the north island, but vessels cannot approach it unless near high water, and there is no means of improving it by extension. To make a good harbour it would be necessary to build a new pier into deep water; then, if any quantity of fish is taken, the vessels must lose their time and bring them to Galway, thirty miles. If there were telegraphic communication between the island and mainland, the Galway steamer might be sent out when there was a large quantity of fish, or if there were a number of first-class vessels there, it might pay a steamer to attend them regularly as they do in the North Sea.

"The Manx, Cornish, and French vessels, only go there in the early part of the year when the mackerel sets in. The Frenchmen slightly salt the fish on board, and take them to France and come back again for another cargo.

    "Sincerely yours,
    "Thomas F. Brady."

That a step, however small, in the right direction has been taken, appears from the following letter from Christopher Talbot Redington, Esq., J.P., D.L., of Kilcornan, in the county of Galway: —

    "Poor Relief (Ireland) Inquiry Commission,
    "Dec. 10, 1886.

"Dear Mr. Burke,

"I have been engaged all the summer, in conjunction with Colonel Fraser and Mr. Mahony, in expending a grant of £20,000 in the scheduled unions under the provisions of the Poor Relief Ireland Act, 1886. We have carried out several works in North and South Aran. The Board of Works are building a pier in the middle island.

    "Yours truly,
    "C.T. Redington."

The absence of first-class fishing boats accounts for the absence of wealth in the islands. The Aran fisherman sees the French fisherman fishing whilst he becomes a farmer and a labourer at wages not worth working for. The Rev. William Killride, rector of Aran, thus writes: —

"Aran, Dec. 11, 1886.

"Dear Sir,

"Men's wages vary. There is no constant work whatever. Spring and the seaweed gathering for kelp are the chief harvests for the labourer. A labourer has seldom more than four months' labour in the year; so that it is a necessity on his part to get gardens on hire. Until last year or the year before he got from 1s. to 1s. 6d. in spring, with his diet; at harvest, about 1s. with his diet, three meals in the day, bread and tea for breakfast, etc. When there is a hurry in seaweeding time he used to get 2s. 6d. and diet, but this lasts only a week twice in the year."

TREES IN ARAN.

The writer then speaks of several other matters connected with the island and about the possibility of growing timber there. "My little grove was planted by myself. I find the greatest difficulty in preserving it, seven trees being destroyed this year. Then I planted every nook and cranny with evergreens; but they were plucked up three several times. I got sick of this thing. Many places in the island were covered with trees. In fact, fifty years ago or so, I have been informed that a large portion of the island grew trees, especially hazel, from 20 to 26 feet in height.

"What kept the poor rate down both last year and this was the amount of relief given out. Mr. Thompson, the agent, laid out £140 on a road, and £136 on seed potatoes. Sir John Barrington has given me upwards of £100 for this object, and this year he gave me £80 or £90 for seed potatoes and £120 for relief and also money to assist emigration and to buy turf. The people will suffer terribly this year for want of fuel. The potato crop is all gone. No fish whatever taken. Any further information you may want I will freely give.

    "I am, dear Sir,
    "Yours, very sincerely,
    "William Killride."

BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS.

The poverty of the Aran fishermen was equalled until lately by that of the Baltimore fishermen in the south of Ireland. Their altered state of circumstances appears by a report of the inspectors of Irish fisheries on the sea fisheries of Ireland, presented to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant in the autumn of 1886. The Baltimore fishing boats had been mere curraghs worth about £6 each. Owing to the liberality of Baroness Burdett-Coutts, of imperishable fame, a number of deep sea fishing boats were built at a cost of £600 each, which was lent to the Baltimore men on easy rates of repayment. The report states that at Baltimore, in the year 1885, there were 41,610 boxes of fish caught by fishermen previously unemployed, and these boxes of fish realized a sum of £34,585. Mostly every tradesman in the town was employed; the carpenters in making boxes, the smiths in strapping them round with hoop iron. "Three vessels arrived in Baltimore loaded with ice, and eight hulks were used for storing it, two at a cost of £20 a month, the others were owned by a company of fish buyers, at a cost of £1 5s. a week each. This for ten would amount to £3080, besides a large expenditure on packers." Fancy the like sums scattered in Aran!

THE ARAN FISHERIES.

At Baltimore in 1886, sixteen steamers were employed in carrying the fish to England, at an estimated cost of £400 each per month.

Over 100 men were employed in the boats used by the buyers; and at a rate of wages which, for twelve weeks, would amount to about £1500, besides a large expenditure upon packers, etc.

In 1886 three vessels arrived with ice, containing 1423 tons, all of which were imported, and eight hulks were used for storing it, owned by a company of fish buyers.

The following instructions to persons applying for loans under the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund, and Sea Fisheries Fund Acts, 37 and 38 Vict. chap. 86; 45 Vict. chap. 16; and 47 and 48 Vict. chap. 21, would be read with delight and acted upon with avidity were it not for the nasty note that appears at the foot of so flaring an advertisement.

LOANS FOR FISHERY PURPOSES.

"I. Loans will be made as heretofore for the purchase or repairs of boats, vessels, or fishing gear, on the security of borrowers and persons to be joined with them as sureties in a joint and several bond and promissory notes.

"II. In special cases, where the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries shall deem it expedient that a new fishing vessel should be supplied to a borrower instead of money, they may, with the consent of the Lord Lieutenant, recommend loans on the security of the borrowers, and on the security of the fishing vessel to be supplied. In such cases the borrowers must give to the Commissioners of Public Works a joint and several bond or promissory note as the case may be, for the amount of the loan, and also execute a deed providing that the vessel shall be registered in the name of the Commissioners of Public Works, and so continue registered until the loan with interest, and any expense incurred, shall be repaid, and also providing that in default of payment of any of the instalments, by which such loan shall be made repayable, or in default of the borrowers preserving the same in proper order and condition, or in case the said vessel should become in the opinion of the said Commissioners a deficient security for the amount of the loan for the time being unpaid, the said Commissioners may cause such boat or vessel to be sold.

"III. Time for repaying any loan not exceeding ten years.

"IV. Repayment by half yearly instalments with interest at the rate of 2.5 per cent. per annum.

THE ARAN FISHERIES.

"Note. – It must be observed that loans under rule No. 2. can only be recommended under veryexceptional circumstances, and to a very limited extent, as the funds available for loans for new vessels are quite insufficient to meet large demands. It will, therefore, be impossible for the inspectors to do more in carrying out this rule than to recommend loans on the security of vessels in a few cases only, where very exceptional circumstances exist, and only in cases of new first-class fishing vessels being provided for with thoroughly experienced fishermen of good character.

"No loans for the purchase of gear will be made without personal security, as laid down by the rules already in force, see No. 1.

    "By order,
    "George Coffey,
    "Secretary.

"Fisheries Office, Dublin Castle, February, 1886."

IRISH FISHERIES – IRISH PARLIAMENT.

Of the immensity of the fisheries we can form no estimate. But to the islanders the fisheries are worthless without boats, and without the means of obtaining boats; without funds, and without the means of obtaining funds. Except "under very exceptional circumstances, and to a very limited extent," they are unable to launch out into the deep and let down their nets for a draught. It is said by one party that a different state of things would prevail had the Irish people an Irish Parliament. That may be so and it may not be so; but one thing is certain, that whilst in 1887 no bonus of any kind can be obtained, in 1787 bonuses of many kinds could be obtained, and were obtained. In the 27th year of George III., a. d. 1787, an Irish Act was passed "for the encouragement of the fishery usually called the deep sea fishery." The marginal note of that section, a section too long to repeat, states that "bounties will be given, 80 guineas for the greatest quantity of herrings caught by the crew of any one vessel, and imported between the 1st of June and the 31st of December in any one year; 60 guineas for the next greatest quantity, 40 guineas for the next, and 20 guineas for the next, to be paid on the 1st of January following." By the same Act bounties of four shillings a barrel were authorized to be given for herrings; and by another section, the fourteenth, three shillings and threepence by the hundredweight was allowed for all dried cod, ling, and other fish mentioned therein. Bounties, however, have long since been discouraged by political economists, and loans have long since been discouraged by other economists, and between those scientists money for the improvement of the Aran fishery was never so hard to be got at as at this present time.

THE ARAN FISHERIES – TRAWLING.

From the coastguard return it would appear that the Galway coastguard division is guarded by five coastguard stations, two of them being on the Aran islands, in which there has been an increase in 1886 of two second class and sixteen third class boats solely engaged in fishing. The trawlers work from Barna to the islands of Aran. That trawling injures the supply of fish is insisted upon by the one party and denied by the other. A court of public inquiry was held in Galway, where the entire question was investigated; the result of which investigation will form the subject of a special report. We shall only observe that the Scotch Fishery Board has prohibited trawling in some places in Scotland. "In the Galway Bay trawling was prohibited for a number of years in about half the bay. For about four years it was not followed at all, and, so far as the evidence at public inquiries could be relied on, there was no improvement in the fisheries during the cessation of this mode of fishing in either the whole, or part of the bay. In the case of Dublin Bay trawling has been prohibited for nearly forty-four years; and the question arises whether the fisheries of that bay have increased in that period.

"In other bays no trawling has ever been carried on; and the present state of the fisheries in such places will have to be carefully inquired into."[19 - Report of Inspectors of Fisheries, 1887, p. 8.]

CHAPTER VI