Vol. 2 No. 1 - Modernist Magazines Project

A HUNDRED YEARS
OF IRISH FISHERIES
J. P. DIGBY
Just over a hundred years ago it was customary in
Limerick, and probably in other fishery districts as well,
for Apprentices to have a clause inserted in their Indentures
to the effect that salmon should not be served them more
than three times a week. Domestic servants had similar
agreements. The salmon was, in fact, the common food
of the people. It can be accepted that at this period the
rivers of Ireland were producing to capacity. The methods
of capture—composed mainly of drift nets, and brush
head weirs—while giving lucrative employment to a large
number of fishermen offered no impassable obstacle to the
ascent of spawning stock. The head weirs, particularly
I O * L J
on the north and north-western coasts, were held by Patent
or Charter, the netting being done by the public as a public
right. Most of the southern fisheries were fished by the
public as a right without charge.
Around the year 1825 there arrived in this country two
Scotsmen named Halliday and Hector with a new and much
more efficient engine of capture—the bag net. Beginning
their operations on the coast of Achill the effects of their
capture were soon felt in the small fisheries such as Borrishool,
Newport and Ballycroy rivers and it was quickly
found not worth while to operate the head weirs of these
fisheries due to the many thousands of fish caught by the
bag nets. That the erection of these bag nets was a clear
violation of the public right at Common Law did not
deter these gentlemen from extending their activities to
other parts of the coast. Soon the estuaries were invaded.