“Crates of fish were stacked up on the pier awaiting collection. Fishermen in yellow oilskins crowded the pier, busy with a million tasks. Boats thronged the water...”
That’s how writer and artist Marc O’Sullivan Vallig recalls Garnish pier in the Beara Peninsula in the 1970s.
An evening to commemorate the mackerel fishing of Garnish Bay in the 1970s as a unique way of life with its own characters is due to take place on Saturday (July 30) in Lehanmore, Garnish on the Beara peninsula.
Organiser say that despite the short-term nature of the economic boom, the mackerel fishery left indelible memories with the locals and those who migrated to fish there, as was documented by the BBC in a television series The West Asleep?
The Lehanmore organising committee says the series by BBC producer Colin Rose will be showing on a loop during the event. Also known as Life on Beara on YouTube, the series documents the 1970s way of life in the parish of Alllihies, west Cork, and the mackerel fishing in particular.
The Mackerel Fishing – Garnish Bay, Beara, in the 1970s takes place in Lehanmore, Garnish on Saturday, July 30th at 8pm.