Recalling Dún Laoghaire’s 1960’s Fishing Fleet.

"During the nineteenth century Dún Laoghaire was an active fishing port and its vessels competed along with Howth and Ringsend on the rich fishing grounds in Dublin Bay. Though the fisheries in the Bay inevitably declined, a revival in the 1960’s saw twenty or more trawlers operating from Trader’s Wharf and venturing further afield."

"Crewed by 4 – 6 men depending on the fishery, names such as Nordkap, Vingafjiord, Quitte ou Double, Brasil, Vestkusten, Nordhavet and Ville de Port Louis betray the origins of some of those sturdy 60-to-80 foot wooden side trawlers crewed by fishermen from all around Ireland and abroad. The local fleet was augmented by visiting boats from Arklow, Wicklow and occasionally Kilmore Quay and Milford Haven, all of whom purchased supplies from Dún Laoghaire’s shops while their crews spent money and regaled patrons of the Crofton Hotel, Cumberland Bar and Top Hat with their exploits."

"Most local vessels worked two to three day trips, heading north where tides were slacker on soft level muddy seabed seeking whiting, haddock and prawns, or south for prime fish such as cod, monkfish, sole, ray and skate, trawling in much stronger tides where the undulating hard seabed damaged trawls and where sand peaks and mounds of brittle stars sometimes stopped vessels in their tracks. The Decca Navigator sometimes went berserk at night leaving boats fishing blind around wrecks where fish congregated and considerable skill was required to avoid losing or damaging gear in strong tides. Every crewman was paid a share of the catch after all expenses were cleared. Bad weather, poor fishing or a lost trawl literally meant no money and the cruel sea often took its share in return for its bounty with tragic drownings of fishermen in Dún Laoghaire Harbour and elsewhere.

Fish was regarded as Friday ‘penance food’ and consequently 100 or more wooden boxes of whiting, gutted bare-handed without gloves for speed, earned little more than £1 (€1.15) for a seven stone box (45 kg) less transport to the Dublin Market and agents commission. Hard though it is to believe now, there was little interest in monkfish or prawns in the 1960's until BIM cultivated a taste for them. Nevertheless, fishermen generally earned more than shore workers, though converting their physical effort to an hourly rate fishing in bad weather with accompanying lack of sleep and bodily fatigue, meant the share was hard-earned. However, while fishermen earned a living from white fish and prawns, the annual Dunmore East winter herring fishery was the real bonus when a determined and lucky skipper invested in good quality fishing gear and drove his vessel and crew to their limits."

"The accompanying photos of pioneering Dún Laoghaire Skipper Brian Crummey’s top-earning sixty-five foot (20m) long Nordkap powered by a 230 HP Scania Vabis engine were taken in 1968. It is hard to believe that a viable fleet which sustained over 100 jobs in a port that once had the fourth highest landings in Ireland had virtually disappeared by the 1980’s, encouraged by the designation of Howth as a Fishery Harbour Centre and the mooring of the dredgers Sisyphus and Saxifrage end-for-end on Traders Wharf making life difficult for fishermen.

Now Howth has its Golden Mile of fish shops and restaurants on the West Pier, and only Dún Laoghaire’s old timers remember what an absolute gem was lost."