THE SEA FISHERIES OF IRELAND. 369 



THE SEA FISHERIES OF IRELAND. 



L— HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



In times long prior to history the coast inhabitants of Ireland utilized the 

 products of the sea for subsistence, as may be gathered from the examina- 

 tion of so-called kitchen middens, or shell mounds, frequently found close 

 to where oysters, mussels, or cockles abound. The remains of fish are not 

 j-o readily preserved as are these shells, but it is probable that these primi- 

 tive people must of tea have been attracted by the shoals of fish which ever 

 and anon make their appearance, and that they would soon have learnt 

 how to catch them. 



The Christian hermits, who in the fifth and sixth centuries settled on 

 remote islands off the coast, must have taken count of the fishing possibili- 

 ties of their locations, and St. Enda, of the Isles of Aran, definitely refers to 

 the fishermen of Galway Bay. Later on, when large abbeys came to be 

 built, how often do we find that the grey old ruins stand close to a point on 

 a river where a salmon weir exists, or where salmon fishing is profitable. 

 About this time inland fisheries came to be dealt with as valuable property, 

 and in old monastic deeds they are frequently referred to. This value was 

 probably of a very local character, as in those days, when salt was difficult 

 to obtain, and the climate too humid for drying on a large scale, there can 

 have been no great trade in river-caught fish. 



The Scandinavians who, for centuries prior to the Anglo-Norman Con- 

 quest, occupied the principal coast-towns of Ireland, probably carried on a 

 trade over-sea in fish. Their interest in fishing is testified to by the struc- 

 ture of stone fishing weirs, and even their language is still perpetuated in 

 the great " Lax Weir " near Limerick, " Lax " being the Danish and Norsk 

 word for salmon. In 1437 Irish sea fish and salmon were exported to Brabant. 

 But the earliest references of important sea-fish trade in progress are those 

 dealing with the fishing off the West of Ireland, by Spaniards, in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Philip II. paid ;^ 1,000 into the Irish 

 Treasury for permission to fish on the Irish coast ; but for how long a time 

 these Spanish fishing boats had made a practice of coming to the coast 

 of Ireland it is difficult to say. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was a 

 long-established institution ; but, for obvious reasons, after the loss of the 

 great Armada, the Spanish fishing fleets ceased their visits. The extent to 

 which this business was carried on may be judged from a report written to 

 the Queen by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in which he stated that 600 Spanish 

 fishing vessels were then fishing, and he mentions Baltimore and the Blas- 

 kets as centres of the industry ; and he also states how the Spaniards com- 

 plained that their cables were often cut by the natives. It would appear 

 from this that there was but little sympathy between the Irish and the 

 Spanish visitors, or, perhaps, the temptation of wrecking was too great to 



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