The Oscar-nominated film The Banshees of Inisherin has given tourism on the Aran island of Inis Mór and Mayo’s Achill island a boost, but such good fortune doesn’t extend to the island’s fishing vessels.

As The Examiner reports, third-generation Aran fisherman John Conneely of Inis Mór will deliver two fishing vessels to yards where they will be broken up, piece by piece, in a few weeks’ time.

One of Conneely’s two vessels, the 17-metre Connacht Ranger, has been in the family for over half a century. It was one of a fleet of timber boats built at boatyards then run by the State’s sea fisheries board, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).

John Conneelys's Connacht Ranger, one of two vessels he has to scrap as part of the Brexit decommissioning scheme

The same State board - which had been tasked with building up a much-neglected industry half a century ago - is now responsible for the scheme to slim it back down.

The whitefish decommissioning scrappage scheme was drawn up by a Government seafood task force to pay up to 60 skipper owners compensation for destroying their vessels - due largely to the loss of quota caused by Brexit.

Conneely is one of a total of 42 owners who have accepted offers, out of 57 letters of offer issued by BIM.

Padraic's cottage, built from scratch for the Banshees of Inisherin film set at Gort na gCapall on Inis Mor close to the Conneely family home

The Brexit Adjustment Reserve, as Brussels calls the compensation fund, amounts to almost 1 billion euro and must be spent within two years. However, only a small percentage of this has been allocated for the fishing vessel scrappage scheme, in spite of the major impact of Brexit on coastal communities.

Read more in The Examiner here