378 THE SEA FISHERIES OF IRELAND. 



that Ireland being, a's it were, the south-western outpost of his territory, it 

 has not always been necessary to maintain a concentration of his forces in 

 that direction. Not being admitted to his councils, we can do no more than 

 feel the great inconvenience of herrings turning up in their thousands at one 

 place for five, ten, or twenty years, and then taking themselves off for half 

 a century. The buildings prepared for their reception fall into ruin, and 

 these dilapidated, roofless stores adorning some of our ports, the grass- 

 grown quays, and the hulls of boats cast aside to rot, are the only monu- 

 ments that remain of days when the herring fishery was in full swing, and 

 the now half-deserted wharves a scene of bustling industry. All the same, 

 it is better for herrings to come in force occasionally than not to come at all, 

 and they are always, to a certain extent, with us. 



Herrings turn up in April off Kinsale, on the coast of Cork, and are in 

 May only fished for by large herring boats, which come for this particular 

 venture from the East coast of Scotland ; all the large Irish boats at this 

 time being engaged in the spring mackerel fishing. This is a wholly 

 " freshing " business, the fish being despatched quickly by rail or fast 

 steamers to market. Later on in the season herrings appear farther to the 

 eastward, and in July there has been in some years a heavy fishing on the 

 east coast off Howth, and about thirty years ago that part of the Irish Sea 

 between Dublin, the Isle of Man, and Ardglass, in the County of Down, 

 was the scene of a herring fishing, to which boats congregated from all parts 

 of the United Kingdom, and large earnings were made. During the last 

 two years an attempt, promising success, has been made to open a Spring 

 Herring Fishery on the coast of Donegal. The fish were cured, and fetched 

 the highest price in the Continental markets. Whether the shoals of 

 herrings which appear off the coast in April or May, and those upon which 

 this autumn fishery depended, are in any way related, has frequently been 

 the subject of warm discussion, and in the present state of our knowledge 

 it is wise to express no opinion. For a great many years the herring fishery 

 in this part of the Irish Sea has failed, although recently it gives promise 

 of revival. 



Turning to the North and West coasts we have to go back seventy years 

 and more to find a great herring fishery. The extensive buildings now 

 indicated by fragmentary ruins which stand on the islands of the Rosses in 

 Donegal were erected in 1786, when a prosperous herring fishery was in 

 progress. Anderson, in his " Annals of Commerce," in 1780 states : — " The 

 Irish have a great advantage as their herring fishery, so precarious on the 

 coast of Scotland, is certain on the coast of Ireland. The Irish take a 

 larger quantity of fish in the same space of time." 



From 1822 to 1831 there was great fishing activity at Killybegs ; the 

 herrings then "took off " for a few years, but in 1836 the fishery resumed, and 

 the harbour was crowded with from 700 to 800 boats, many of them from 

 the East coast, being of large size and capable of carrying to market 

 200,000 cured herrings, which they bought in Killybegs fresh at ten 

 shillings per thousand. The local boats were of about three tons and 

 measured nineteen feet on the keel. The boats used by the Skerries 

 fishermen were about eight tons and measured twenty-four feet on the 

 keel, seven feet ten inches beam. They worked with eight pieces of net> 

 thirty fathoms long and seven fathoms deep. The local boats used much 

 smaller nets. 



On the Mayo coast off Achill, there was good herring fishing from 1800 

 to 1 8 10, then the arrival of the shoals became later and later, until in 1829 



