A MAN who obstructed a fisheries officer at sea after being caught without a valid licence for fishing was fined €700.

Jeremiah O’Neill (70), of Union Hall, pleaded guilty to one charge of not having a valid fishing licence and one for obstructing a fisheries officer.

On September 13th 2024, officers on patrol came to check Mr O’Neill’s paperwork while he was out on his nephew’s boat Mairead, just south of Union Hall, where he was fishing for lobster and crab.

Giving evidence, Sea Fisheries Protection Officer Gary Hannon said the fishing licence for the Mairead had expired in June 2024.

Mr Hannon and his colleague returned to their vessel to check further details and asked Mr O’Neill to haul in his 40 lobster pots.

When the officers came back onboard the Mairead, a box of crabs worth around €200 had been thrown overboard, and Mr O’Neill was found to have no logbook, Mr Hannon said.

In effect evidence of illegal fishing had been destroyed, which triggered the obstruction charge, the court heard.

Defence solicitor Liam O’Donovan said his client had shot the lobster pots just before the officers had asked him to haul them back in.

Judge Joanne Carroll said: ‘We are living in an island nation and it is very serious to be out there fishing without a licence.’

Solicitor Daragh Healy, on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said Mr O’Donovan had a previous conviction for sexual assault in 2022.

Defence solicitor Liam O’Donovan said his client had been fishing for 55 years, with the boat he was using harboured in Raheen, just south of Castletownsend.

It belonged to his nephew who was in the defence forces and Mr O’Neill, who received a state pension, was the skipper of the boat.

‘You would see him going out in all sorts of weather. He accepts that there was no valid licence in place. It is accepted that Mr O’Neill should have never taken to the water. It was one of his first ventures out to sea since being released from prison,’ Mr O’Donovan said.

The court heard that there had been an inspection of the boat on September 13th 2023 and that an application to renew the licence had been submitted that day, being granted a
week later.

The court heard Mr O’Neill currently had a valid licence in place. Judge Carroll accepted he was ‘not acting in total disrespect of the law’ as he had applied for a licence.

‘He has come full circle in terms of remorse,’ Mr O’Donovan said.

Judge Carroll fined him €250 for fishing without a licence and €450 for obstruction. A logbook charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.