The Ship Hits The Fan

It’s come to this…

nd so it has come to this, a fisherman placing himself under his heisted boat so it can’t plonked down on the pier.

Naturally, Tim Storey would like this sorry situation reversed – and the Centurion to be lifted back into the water.

And on the instructions of the local garda, it was.

It’s the latest, and certainly strangest, twist in the long-running campaign to establish a berthing spot for Greystones fishermen in Greystones harbour. As crazy as that sounds.

Supposedly all sorted last July – after 12 years of haggling, protesting and delay tactics – that gentlemen’s agreement doesn’t seem to impress harbour master Bernard Gallagher all that much. And he’s not impressed by Tim and fellow fisherman Ivan Toole, as explained in a letter to Greystones councillors earlier today.

We really don’t have the time nor the patience to go into the background details that led to today’s Tiananmen stand-off – you can work your way backwards through all that here – but, suffice to say, we’re at a point where both sides feel they’re in the right. And that the other side is most definitely in the wrong.

What really needs to happen here, given that the Greystones fishermen don’t have any kind of contract when it comes to the access rights agreed last year, is that the big boys involved – Sisk and, more importantly, Wicklow County Council – forge an agreement on a berthing spot in the harbour, and then get the feckin’ thing down on paper.

Until then, the harbour will continue to be a battleground. And we’ll see even more desperate – and sad – situations like today’s stand-off.