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David Connolly / Vimeo
IN APRIL 1982 a Clogherhead fishing boat, the Sheralga, was trawling for prawns in the Irish Sea.
Raymond McEvoy was skippering the 70ft vessel about 30 miles off the Dublin coast when near disaster struck.
Other vessels in the area reported seeing the boat suddenly lurching back before being dragged backwards at high-speed, an estimated 10 knots. A significant pace with the Sheralga’s engines powering in the opposite direction.
The five man crew at first didn’t know what was happening but the seriousness of the situation soon became apparent when the boat started to go under.
The Sheralga was dragged for about two miles before it sunk and all five crew leapt overboard. They were rescued by number of other trawlers with Paul Connolly, captain of the main rescue vessel The Supreme, describing what happened.
“Next thing I seen him go full astern, he was flying astern about 6, 7, 10 knots astern. Then the boat listed over on her side.”
The crew men were taken to shore at Clogherhead by The Supreme and were in no doubt that they’d been sunk by a submarine which had left the scene rather than assist the rescue.
“She was dragged over, definitely, by a submarine, definitely,” said crewman Noel Kirwan in the hours after the sinking. “What was going to pull her back, 600 horsepower, something had to pull her back.”
At first, Britain denied any involvement in what happened but a number of weeks later admitted that the sinking had been caused by one of their subs.
The incident happened at the height of the Falklands War and it later transpired that the the Sheralga’s nets had been caught by HMS Porpoise which was looking for Soviet submarine activity in the Irish Sea.
‘No intention’
The sinking caused a major diplomatic incident between Ireland and the UK with demands that submarine activity be stopped in the Irish Sea.
The crewmen wanted compensation, both for the loss of the boat and their livelihoods and also for what they saw as the risk to their lives. The Irish Government meanwhile pushed for Irish fishing grounds to be made submarine-free.
But a confidential Government document published under the 30-year rule demonstrates that there was no Government appetite to “become party to the dispute” between the men and the United Kingdom.
The March 1984 briefing note for Minster for Foreign Affairs Peter Barry ahead of a UK visit contained the following extract:
We have no intention of acting as a party to the dispute and we have involved ourselves only to the extent of keeping ourselves informed of the views of both sides.
“We strongly hope that a court case may be avoided and that the matter may yet be settled by mutual agreement of loss adjusters,” it adds.
In the end, the men did go the legal route and four years later the crew received compensation in a Belfast court according to submarine blog Sundodgers.com.
The blog added that the compensation as Raymond McAvoy puts it “didn’t even match half of what he paid for the boat”.
The 1984 Government documents also outline how the Sheralga was far from the last of the “allegations of submarine interference with fishing vessels”.
The memo outlines to the Foreign Minster that he may wish to mention:
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It’s new politicians we need, not a new party.
It’s not new politicians we need, it’s a new system. The Whip system, invented back in the Dark Ages, effectively stymies democracy. What we have instead is a quasi dictatorship with all power concentrated in a small cabal centred round the Taoiseach, the cute hoors who have basically swapped matters of conscience with “getting things done the Enda Way” or “success” as they perceive it. What we need is reform of the Whip before any meaningful progress towards Democracy can be made. I believe that Eoghan Murphy has suggested reform from within FG, but I don’t know where it has got him.
Crow,
I’ve said that the whip system is an affront to democracy.
We need new politicians to change the system.
the electorate are the problem. If politicians are held to account then they will act accountable. If they are made act in national interest they will do it out of self preservation.
The electorate votes for TweedleFG and TweedleFF and Lab. poodle and expect change every time.
Why would politicians change or act differently when people will only moan online or at home. If every pub or internet moaner called their local TD’s regularly to complain about the latest travesty, if 50k people turned up and peacefully protested over decisions that are against national good then we’d have change.
That would mean getting off the couch, not caring what the neighbours would think and basically taking charge of your own lives and future. Things which the Irish electorate resolutely refuse to do.
Criteria needed to become a member of new group.. You must be a crook or a thief or a lying bas*ard or all of the above…!!!
And a former member of F F
Why change anything? It won’t make the slightest difference. More importantly though, the Irish people are obviously happy with their lot, because if we weren’t, we’d be outside Leinster House, protesting every day about the criminal acts committed on a daily basis by our elected representatives!
..we need a revolution! :D
We have Sinn Fein, Labour, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, people before Profit alliance, United Left Alliance (some of these groupings intermingle of course) all claiming to be some form of left wing option for people. So what exactly would another Left wing grouping have to offer? The modern left is in thrall to political corectness and lacks the guts to tell people that having a generous welfare state only works when it is geared towards getting people back to work. I have no doubt that this new Left-wing group would spout the same guff. Any chance of some principled, decent politicians (left or right) who tell it like it after they been elected and don’t get completely corrupted by large salaries, enormous pensions and unvouched expenses? We live in hope….
“generous welfare state only works when it is geared towards getting people back to work”.
A very true comment. We have the most generous welfare state in the world. Too generous some may say, especially when there are tens of thousands of jobs in the country that people think are beneath them i.e cleaners, shop assistants, hotel workers etc.
People on the dole for 3 months should be forced to take one of these jobs regardless of qualifications.
The modern “left” isn’t left-wing if it opposes a property tax. They’re populist. Simple as.
labour party members have two right legs and two right arms, not a left in sight.
We’d probably hav a more honest political system if we flew Robert Mugabe in to be our dictator
The way the Irish are asked to vote repeatedly until we come up with the “right” answer would make Mugabe proud. He’s probably studying Ireland as we speak
Mugabe would not have to rig elections here though, the people would vote for him no mater what.
The electorate are the problem not the politicians. The latter come from and are allowed act so by the former.
Maybe Wallace could be their spokesperson for finance & taxation while Daly could be justice & truth,Boyd Barrett could be spokesperson for tourism & dreamland while Ming could be Agriculture & grass!
Well said Gmurpi………It’s a joke in itself that the 4 you mentioned could be spokeperson for those folios, what if they ended up in real-life as Ministers in Dail Eireann…
A frightening thought, we would probably end up using chemical weapons on ourselves…..Says a lot about the monkeys that put them there,
Gotta love Pat Mustard
This cabal of left-wingers, referenced in the above article, would offer no true “alternative” to what we have got. They would only offer more of the same empty, dead-end liberal/leftism.
Not new politicians.
Not new political system.
New electorate …. 60% of Irish electorate were too lazy to vote in the last election!
Exactly the electorate are the problem here. Given the tolerance of the population of this country to abuse and contempt by their leaders it is actually amazing that the political class haven’t robbed us more.
This seems like an admission of abject failure that not even the untaxed and unvouched €42k parliamentary allowance could camouflage. The alternative needed is for tax dodgers and ineffective Independents to be dumped.
If any ‘new’ poltitical party was to be formed, then it would soon become self sustaining if it was responding to the needs of the electorate. It wouldn’t have to worry about sustaining itself in an effort to hold onto power.
If this is accurate, it’s laughable that Roisin Shortall now wants to be in “The Ragbags”
Aye
More political elite wasters and jobs for the boys this country is a disgraceful joke
Question for the army of cynics who populate this site. How is it you are free to say what you like about govt, bankers, church, politicians, etc? Freedom of speech exists because non cynics went out and struggled to make it happen often at great cost to themselves. You lot are happy to enjoy the freedom but too frightened or too defeated to struggle for anything yourselves!!!
Brendan.
That is the heart of the matter. People here are only willing to complain rather than turn off the TV occasionally and do something about it. It has always been easier to go along or emigrate in Ireland or attack those calling for reform.
I think that it is because people were so controlled here for so long that they have no self-starter drive, a nation of slaves.
Christ people could even do loads just even sitting at the internet. Write emails to TD’s, organize letter writing campaigns to newspapers. Get invloved in political blogs and start coming up with ideas for reform, policy strategies.
Much easier though to go “shure dere all de same, no point in doing anything, poor me”
Dail Eireann doesn’t exist what you see is the Royal Oireachtas. The Oireachtas is a provisional government only. The Dail exists only in 32 county united ireland. Anybody who tells you different is lying.
The Govt. in Leinster house exists in reality though and while I have no love for it nor accept it as a national parliament. I still have to accept that it has been the day to day Govt. of 26 counties for a very long time.
The Govt. here is a reality and that is not going to change, whether you or I consider it legitimate or not, whether we view its establishment as a betrayal or not. It is still a reality and ignoring it is not an option. The fatal error was in 1926 when the majority of Republicans let DeValera split off and start a new party in his own imagine, rather than in one based on the political vision of the Republic. The state here ended up with a Catholic reactionary and conservative Govt. that was committed to partition, committed to maintaining Church control, that refused to modernize the economy, all on the whim and mad vision of one man.
Tactics have to change to meet the reality.
Patrick & Dylan = stuck in a time warp! Nobody gives a toss about this type of outdated ramblings!
I think what would be a great idea is a new parallel “government” to crop up. not a government per say, but a governing body of individuals who will ACTUALLY represent the people. it could start off volunteer based and that way only people who are genuinely interested in helping Ireland and her people would be interested in doing so. luckily there are still people in society who value their morals, reputation and beliefs higher than any amount of money, and would not be bought out so easy at least I hope so anyway. tasks could include organising rallies to counter the out of control current system, gathering groups to counter banks attempting to evict people. and ideally start its own non-for profit banking system. it would be great if this new Eire Bank could materialise something like this.
what Ireland needs, desperately needs, is a well oiled, well operated group to counter the current system which happily accommodates corruption, and has no problem taking advantage of the most vulnerable in society.
we all need to snap out of the trance, its 2013 and humanity is perpetuating itself down a very slippery slope.
I actually think the current government would have a big internal sigh of relief if the people took measures to ensure their sovereignty and security to counter the foreign modern day pirates.
anyway… just throwin seeds out ther!
by the way I am in no way encouraging or endorsing any kind of violent oppostition to government, we are a small island and the last thing we need is to be fighting among ourselves. I merely feel we need a new system which could accommodate some sort of transition to get the governing body back in the hands of the people of Ireland.
” no army can stop an idea who’s time has come”
“A Dáil Technical Group must comprise of a majority of non-aligned (i.e. no party affiliation) members in order to be recognised and have speaking rights in Dáil debates.”
Are the TD’s who’ve left FG then still, technically, affiliated to the the party as they are, presumably still party members, they’ve just been removed from the parliamentary party?
Not sure I can see the numbers adding up in any case.
have your say