THE SEA-FISHERIES OF IRELAND 115 



more than compensated for the lack of regulation 

 or the absence of bounties or other artificial means 

 of encouragement. In most respects Ireland offers 

 a strong contrast to the conditions in the sister 

 kingdom, and the history of her fisheries is a 

 curious and instructive study, into which I can 

 enter only very briefly. Although a central 

 authority, possessing relatively large powers of 

 regulation, has nearly always existed in modern 

 times, yet the administration has until quite 

 recently generally been characterised by apathy 

 or even abuse. There has been no continuity in 

 the policy of this authority, and State support has 

 been alternately given and then withdrawn. And 

 to these causes of depression are to be added the 

 general poverty of the people, and economic changes 

 without parallel in either England or Scotland. 



Apparently there has always been abundance of 

 fish off the Irish coasts, so that the limited develop- 

 ment of the fisheries is not to be traced to natural 

 causes. There 1 are, of course, no statistics prior to 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century which 

 might give us any notion of the extent of the fish- 

 ing, but there are other indications that the seas 

 had abundant natural resources. From the time of 

 the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century, the English sovereigns derived 

 a considerable revenue by granting licences to fish 

 in Irish waters. Thus the Dutch gave Charles I. 

 /3 0,000 for permission to fish off the west coast, and 



