Ron,
I am not sure there was much formal legislation that restricted Irish & Scots
fishing boats as such. Just economic and other factors came into play at times,
often to do with the size of the boats and lack of suitable ports and curing
facilities. For example:
From: The Irish Famine by Peter Grey (1995):
“....the fisheries of Ireland, were undeveloped…
... A large part of the Irish coast, in the south-west, west and north-west is
perilous: there are cliffs, rocks, treacherous currents, sudden squalls and
above all the Atlantic swell surging from America across thousands of miles of
ocean. By the nineteenth century timber was short in Ireland; in the west,
practically speaking, there was none, and fishing-boats were small, the largest
being 12-15 tons. The national boat of Ireland is the 'curragh', a frail craft,
often of considerable length, made of wicker work covered originally with
stretched hides and latterly with tarred canvas. The curragh rides easily over
the great Atlantic swells, is fast, and with four oarsmen can cover surprising
distances. The Curragh was not suitable for the use of nets in deep-sea
fishing, and according to an expert writing at the time the fish off the west
coast of Ireland lay many miles out at sea in forty fathoms of water. A vessel
of at least fifty tons was needed, capable of going out for several days, laden
with nets, to face 'the frightful swell of the Atlantic'. If a gale blew from
the east the nearest port of refuge was Halifax, in Nova Scotia. The curraghs
and small fishing-boats of the Irish were 'powerless in these circumstances';
and an inspector, reporting from Skibbereen, wrote that the failure of Irish
fisheries was due to the want of boats suitable for deep-sea fishing,
Fishing wasn’t banned but the government didn’t build ports suitable for larger
boats that could fish in deep water, there was no salting or canning industry
(it would have competed with the English industries) and as a result no large
scale fishing industry could develop.
When the staple crop failed fishermen ended up unable to fish in bad weather
and with no way to preserve fish.”
Far from being restricted, Irish, Scottish & English boats often fished
together in the 1800s. Fish such as herring migrated right around Britain and
Ireland every year, and a combined fishing fleet from all over Britain &
Ireland followed them (accompanied by an army of fishwives who did the onshore
work ie salting and filling the barrels). Some history of that in the link
below. You will see that, as an example, the port of Arklow (in Co. Wicklow)
had 150 boats that regularly followed the fish around the Isle of Man, up the
Irish Sea through the Hebrides, along the top of Scotland and down the east
side of Scotland to Dunbar (near Edinburgh) :
pp16-29- History of Irish Sea Herring Fisheries
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pp16-29- History of Irish Sea Herring Fisheries
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The question is what fishing records exist in Ireland for the 1800s. The
answer, as with so many records in Ireland, is very few. If you know the port
where your ancestors fished from, a local museum might be able to help, but the
vessels and crew weren’t really regulated in any way in much of the 1800s, and
so no records were kept. (I don’t think any taxes were routinely levied on
fishing catches). But local museums do sometimes have photographs (1860s
onwards) and some newspaper reports and anecdotal information.
Elwyn
On Tuesday 25 March 2025 at 13:47:54 GMT, Ron McCoy via CoTyroneList
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi All
I realise County Tyrone is land locked but have also found that many
Irish families made at least part of their family living on the Sea.
According to records the British began to limit the amount of time the
Irish/Scottish Fishing fleet could be at sea to times that British
fishing vessels were not. In line with this many Irish families around
1800's bordered fishing vessels and sailed for Canada and the USA. Does
anyone know if there was lists of Irish fishing vessels any were?
Possibly Guilds, Unions, fishing plant records, fishing taxes records?
Cheers
Ron McCoy
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