Tag Archives: Arklow
Arklow Fisherman Appeals to Politicians to Submit His Experience to EU Fishing Vessel Safety Review
The owner of former beam trawler Mary Kate has said his experience should inform the EU’s review of fishing vessel safety. Arklow fisherman CJ Gaffney has written to national and local politicians and MEPs to ask that they present his case to the EU review. Gaffney discovered serious stability issues with the Dutch trawler after he bought it in 2007 and was left with debts of 1 million euro. He tried to take legal action in both the Netherlands and Germany, took out a loan to cover fixing the vessel and then had to surrender it to the bank in 2012. He sought EU funds in compensation, but the EU said it was up to the national state. The vessel was broken up in New Ross, Co Wexford, earlier this year under the Government’s decommissioning scheme. >>click to read<< 13:09
Brady hits out at Ministers for ‘passing buck’ as Arklow fisherman flounders in debt
The criticism by the Wicklow TD addresses the failure of both Ministers to take leadership with “neither prepared to do the decent thing and deal with the issue” that has seen Mr Gaffney lose his fishing boat and license and wrack up debts of more than €1million. “What we have witnessed is a case of ‘passing the buck’ between government departments, as they work to avoid taking responsibility for the matter,” said Mr Brady. Explaining his current situation, Mr Gaffney said: “I have no life anymore. Every week there is costs, and every week is like a knife cut. >click to read< 08:50
I’m facing a ‘life sentence’ of debt because I was sold a ‘defective’ trawler
A former fisherman has told how he’s been handed “a life sentence” after he was left €2 million in debt when he was sold a trawler, which he claims was defective. CJ Gaffney, from Arklow, Co Wicklow, bought the Mary Kate WD30 in Germany in 2009 and at the time the vessel was deemed safe by German authorities, who had stamped its EU papers. But when the boat almost capsized on two occasions with four crew on board, nearly 20 tonnes of steel was discovered when they carried out their own independent safety checks. He claims this extra weight made the 24m boat completely unstable and too dangerous for the water. >click to read< 08:18
Independent Senator calls on Ryan to launch investigation into Mary Kate
CJ Gaffney and his family have received more backing in their fight for justice over the Irish Government’s handling of the case relating to the fishing vessel ‘Mary Kate’ WD 30, which they purchased from Germany in 2007. The Mary Kate was passed as safe at the time of her purchase. Little did CJ and his family know at that time, that in fact, they had been led into purchasing an iron coffin. Since this time, the Euro-cutter design, of which the Mary Kate is a model, has been condemned. CJ and his family tried everything in their power to correct the issues with the Mary Kate, but were blocked at every turn, and eventually were forced by the banks to sell their boat, leaving them heavily in debt. And so started a long-drawn-out fight for justice. >click to read< 19:05
Financially Ruined: Arklow skipper CJ Gaffney launches petition calling for investigation into fishing vessel
Arklow skipper CJ Gaffney has launched an online petition calling for an official and impartial investigation into the three EU countries involved in the former Irish fishing boat “Mary Kate – WD30’’. Mr Gaffney has been left in debt after purchasing the trawler in 2007, only for it to be subsequently found to be unsafe. “We are now financially ruined. We have lost our boat, our fishing quota, our fishing license. We have lost our good name. We have lost respect within our fishing community. We have no credit worthiness with financial institutions. “We have lost a proud fishing heritage spanning 5 generations of my family. “Please sign our petition. Help us get justice and compensation for a damning error which has financially ruined us.” >click to read< 07:31 – IRISH FAMILY’S LAST S.O.S. IN THEIR FIGHT FOR JUSTICE- This is the link to the Petition >click to sign<
Unsung Heroes: Austie Bourke – The fight for survival
Murrisk Harbour, where Austie Bourke left in 1947 on a journey which saw him and two others lost at sea for three weeks before being miraciously found alive off the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Several people tried to break the news to Maria Bourke but she was having none of it. Her husband was surely dead, they tried to gently tell her. Lost at sea for three weeks, he could not have survived. It was past the stage for them of hoping he would be found alive and slimmer by the day were the chances of even finding a body. But nobody knew Austin ‘Austie’ Bourke like Maria and her faith in him was not founded in denial; rather it was rooted in her knowledge of him always returning to his beloved Murrisk during a lifetime of peril at sea. “No storm could beat my husband,” she insisted, 73 years ago this month. Maria Bourke was right. >click to read< 10:03
Wicklow widow suing ‘those with an interest in’ fishing boat after husband drowned without life jacket
Brigid Hughes has taken an admiralty case, as of 13 July, against ‘all persons claiming an interest in’ the fishing vessel Kerri Heather, based out of Arklow, Co Wicklow. Her husband, Leonard (49), better known as Lenny, an experienced fisherman, drowned after falling from the boat while hauling bait pots off the Wicklow coastline on the morning of Wednesday, 16 November, 2016. The Kerri Heather had been at sea for just over an hour at the time of the incident. The precise nature of the lawsuit is not currently known, nor which defendants are intended by the broad nature of the claim. >click to read<20:24
