Endurance & The Blockheads

Harbour gates SUN6NOV22 John McGowan

he week ahead is shaping up to be a pretty decisive one for the long-running fishermen’s dispute down at Greystones Harbour.

After last week’s protest and the pier lock-in the week before, the solicitors’ letters have been flying.

Marina developers SISK have now stepped into the ring, sending a list of legal challenges to fisherman Ivan O’Toole on Friday morning that largely echoed the complaints of the harbour master, Bernard Gallagher.  In response, O’Toole’s solicitor sent their list of challenges to those legal challenges just before close of business on Friday, which SISK should be addressing tomorrow.

In the meantime, large concrete blocks have appeared down at the harbour gates, most probably there to allow for the opening the pier for pedestrians whilst keeping any pesky fish-crate-carrying vehicles firmly at bay.

The claim that said pier is ‘closed due to health & safety issues’ is hard to get clarification on, given that the weather isn’t exactly stormy right now. The belief is that the harbour master feels the desperate but illegal installation of cleats on the pier by the fishermen so they could tie up their boats are the aforementioned danger to the public. The original cleats having been removed by Gallagher, who then sent fines to the fishermen for tying up their boats to the pier ladders.

On the plus side, as Cllr Tom Fortune goes to bat for the fishermen by calling out Wicklow County Council and their apparent reluctance to sort out this 12-year-old dispute, an off-the-record conversation this afternoon suggests that a major player is keen to step in and clear up these muddy waters. And they want “to sort it all out by Friday“.

So, here’s hoping a real resolution will be reached by the end of this coming week. Fish fingers crossed.