The Quota (Black Dog Island 2017)
My first visit to Killybegs Co Donegal was in around 1988. I loved the feeling of driving up through Bruckless for approx. ten miles eventually entering this maze of a town called Killybegs with factories and boats everywhere. Instantly I recall having that déjà vu feeling as if I was here in some past life experience. There was something fantastically alive about the town or it was one of the best kept secrets of north Donegal that nobody knew about.
Over the years after, I watched it become one of the most busiest fishing villages in the whole of Ireland. I played my music there in the nineties quite a few times. After Ireland’s entry into the EEC and EU the fishing quota was introduced and sadly I also witnessed a decline in Killybeg’s maritime infrastructure and growth.
At this stage there were very few Irish Boats still in the water and working. Shortly after that, I met a hardy local Fisherman from Teelin Co Donegal called Pat Ringo Cunningham. We talked in great lengths about the decline of the fishing industry and how the quota and entry into the EU had wiped the smaller businesses and fishing trade out. He talked about European Factory ship as big as hotels coming into Irish waters and hovering up hundreds of tons of fish with nets that ran out for miles into the ocean. With the new sonar technology the fish had nowhere to hide in Irish waters anymore. There was no fish left for indigenous fishermen to stay in business anymore. I had a song already started but this conversation inspired me to write and finish this song. This song is dedicated to Pat Ringo Cunningham and David Maguire R.I.P both native of Carrick & Teelin, Co Donegal and to all the hard working seafaring fisherman in every county in Ireland.
Lyrics:
KEY: [EM]
VERSE 1:
THE QUOTAS FINISHED 12TH MAR 2013
IT WAS WINDY COLD AND DAMP THROUGH THE WAVES OUR TRAILER WENT
FOR TO FISH OUT IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN.
WELL OUR CAPTAIN’S NAME WAS PAT HE FISHED OUT FROM BUNGLASS,
AND A HARDER MAN YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE MET ONE.
HE SAID DAVID WE ARE DONE ITS ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE
FOR THIS QUOTA HAS NAILED US THROUGH OUR POCKETS.
IT’S THAT EUROPEAN LAW THAT ONE WE NEVER SAW
OUR FISHING RIGHTS ARE GONE AND WERE FORGOTTEN.
CHORUS
ALL THE FISHING BOATS ARE GONE OUR FISHERMEN MOVE ON ‘’
AND THE QUOTA’’ HAS LEFT US EARNING LESS NOW
OF THE COAST OF MALIN HEAD BUNGLAS TO KILLYBEGS
AND I’LL FISH NO MORE THE COLD ATLANTIC OCEAN,
ON OUR BOW THE WAVES THEY CRASHED SLEET FELL ON OUR BACKS
AS WE HAULED OUR NET’S TO TRY TO MAKE A LIVING.
ON THE NORTH ATLANTIC SEA THERE’S NO WORK FOR YOU AND ME
SINCE RAISING HIGHER TAXES FOR TO PAY IN.
CHORUS
ALL THE FISHING BOATS ARE GONE OUR FISHERMEN MOVE ON ‘’
AND THE QUOTA’’ HAS LEFT US EARNING LESS NOW
OF THE COAST OF MALIN HEAD BUNGLASS TO KILLYBEGS
AND I’LL FISH NO MORE THE COLD ATLANTIC OCEAN,
200 MILES OF COAST FULL OF FOREIGN BOATS
AND FACTORY SHIPS THAT HOOVER UP QUOTA.
ALL THE STOCKS ARE VERY LOW THE FISH HAVE NO PLACE TO GO
BUT INTO NETS THAT RUN FOR MILES INTO THE OCEAN.
CHORUS
ALL THE FISHING BOATS ARE GONE OUR FISHERMEN MOVE ON ‘’
AND THE QUOTA’’ HAS LEFT US EARNING LESS NOW
OF THE COAST OF MALIN HEAD BUNGLASS TO KILLYBEGS
AND I’LL FISH NO MORE THE COLD ATLANTIC OCEAN,
