Who’d be a deepwater fisherman? The hours are punishing, the working conditions precarious and, amid questions about the high environmental price of industrialised fishing, the future is murky. But there are some things in life that defy logic – and that is the case with the call of the open water, as RTÉ demonstrates in its rewarding new documentary Tarrac na Farraige (RTÉ One, Thursday, 7pm).
This beautifully made two-part series offers an engaging portrait of a way of life that may soon be gone forever – with ever greater consolidation in the industry, fewer and fewer “skippers” have a boat of their own. It is also a love letter to the gorgeous Irish coastline, featuring lush overhead shots of Castletownbere in Cork, Baile na nGall in the Waterford Gaeltacht and Inis Mór off the Galway coast. You could watch it with the sound down.
The fishing captains profiled are a fascinating bunch – passionate about the sea to the point of obsession. Standing outside his bungalow on Inis Mór, Enda Dirrane talks about his need for connection to the sea. Even before he became a full-time fisherman at 16, it was a constant in his life. “I wouldn’t live anywhere else,” he says as the sun twinkles on the water. “I definitely couldn’t live in the middle of the country. I’m always thinking about fishing.”
Several of those featured have had more than their share of private loss. In Castletownbere, Larry Murphy recalls discovering his son Wayne died while they were returning to port. “Buried him on his 26th birthday,” Murphy recalls. “He died on our way back from Norway. Bought the boat in 2004; he died in 2004. He was married with one kid. It was a bad, bad blow.”
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Tragedy has also befallen Co Waterford’s Fionn Ó Corraoin. “Not many members of my family were fishermen,” Ó Corraoin says. “My uncle and my grandfather on my mother’s side…The others were farmers. But I grew up two miles down the road [from the sea].”
Ó Corraoin says he was inspired by his sister, Caoilfhionn, to pioneer a sustainable model of fishing – shortly afterwards she received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Everything he has done since has been in her memory.
Ó Corraoin is determined “to show you can make a living doing this”. He says this while guiding his boat into the deep blue waters off the coast. It is a stunning image that sits heartbreakingly alongside the challenges he has had to overcome – and which elevates Tarrac na Farraige far beyond the traditional RTÉ realm of stodgy, Nationwide-style documentaries bodged together on the cheap.
