POLAROIDS ON THE SALMON WEIR CELEBRATES GALWAY’S TRADITION OF SALMON SNATCHING ON GALWAY BAY FM’S KEITH FINNEGAN SHOW FOR HERITAGE WEEK, MON 23RD – FRI 27TH AUGUST 2010, 11.30 – 11.45am

To mark Galway’s heritage week, at 11.30am each morning, the Keith Finnegan Show on Galway Bay FM hosts Polaroids on the Salmon Weir, a five-part radio documentary series celebrating the city’s lost tradition of salmon poaching or snatching as it’s known locally.

Originated and researched by Peadar Browne, the series is presented and produced by Maud Hand and features retired snatchers, Fisheries Inspector Pat Gorman, bailiffs, solicitors, customers, spectators, writers and musicians, all of whom, have been touched or inspired in some way by this ancient form of fishing which flourished in Galway in the recent past.

Says Tommy Hoolihan, formerly of the Claddagh and the only snatcher willing to be identified:
“The thrill of having a fish and he running on a handline was incredible, especially if you hooked a ten or twelve pound salmon, sure he’d nearly pull you to the river.”

Another snatcher who remains nameless says: ‘I didn’t see salmon, I saw ten pound notes with fins – it became an art. The better you were at it, the more money you made and the quicker you could be in and out before bailiffs came.”

Snatching is a crude style of fishing using a strokehaul or weighted treble hook on a handline which is thrown in to the water and hooked anywhere in the flesh of the fish. When the Irish government took over the Galway Fisheries in 1978, it was criminalized, despite its long clandestine tradition as a means of livelihood, particularly among residents of the Claddagh.

Henry Comerford, prosecuting solicitor for the Western Fisheries for three decades recalls: “They were a tourist attraction in Galway apart altogether from seeing the wonderful salmon making its way up river, you had all these slick young guys in their open shirts, blue jeans and Polaroid sunglasses whipping huge fish from the Corrib.”

The series focuses on the fun and drama of the practice as the poachers pursued the salmon, the customers cajoled for cheap deals, the bailiffs chased the snatchers and the public looked on in glee at the eternal entertainment of the cat and mouse hi-jinks of those involved.

Musicians and writers were inspired, among them Padraig Stevens and Dick Byrne who’ve immortalised the city’s more legendary snatchers in their music and prose.

As Pat Gorman, District Inspector with the Western Regional Fisheries Board, commands crowds for his
Heritage Week Talk on Traditional Poaching in Galway City and County, we takes a timely look at this fishing tradition.

Other contributors include poet, Mary O’Malley, actor Mick Lally, King of the Claddagh Mick Lynskey; local craftsman & tour guide, Micháel Ó Ceallaigh, retired bailiffs, Paddy Glynn & Joe Mullery.

For more information, contact producer, Maud Hand, M: 086 602 0749; E: maudhand@gmail.com

FURTHER NOTES

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