Brexit: Opinions from the border

In the final day of his ‘Brexit: opinions from the Border’ series Cian McCormack visits Donegal where fishermen and businesses are concerned about the future. Over the past three days, he has travelled the border from Dundalk to Donegal finding out how people are weighing up the potential impacts of Brexit.

The bright sunshine in Killybegs presents a perfect photographic opportunity. The water in the harbour sits as calm as a mill pond reflecting puffy white clouds above.

It’s populated by red, blue and navy fishing boats and set against green hills, an austere church spire, and bright blue sky. This is a picture postcard scene. Tourists come here from the north for this kind of view.

Parched, tired and craving caffeine I stop outside Mrs. B’s Coffee House. One its owners, Ann Conaghan, is busy serving customers during the mid morning rush. She says cross border tourism is important to Killybegs and Donegal. Brexit throws up challenges.

As she grinds coffee beans to make an Americano, Ann says: "You are always concerned about the unknown. In the context of our proximity to the border, there are challenges that it may bring. So far we have not seen any massive changes. We still have customers, especially during the summer, coming from the North and the UK as well. I think it is wait and see but so far we are not affected by it."

What Ann says echoes other conversations on my three-day journey from Dundalk to Donegal. There is concern about the freedom to cross the border post Brexit. For many, borders are barriers that stymie business.

She says a hard border would prevent her buying supplies and shopping north of the border. Many people living in the borderlands are doing this because the currency exchange rate makes it more attractive to shop there. She says having free access to cross the border is crucial and "barriers to people coming across" would make people and tourists think twice about travelling south - and that "would affect" business in Killybegs.

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Future proofing tourism is important.

In Bundoran, Brian McEniff - Chairman of the Brian McEniff Hotel Group, which had six hotels in the north west - is preparing for Brexit.

The former Donegal football manager said: "The North is a big market for us. We are here on their doorstep. The one fear that we have is the hard border. I am old enough to remember when you had to stop at the customs stop at Belleek and get stamped. God help us if we go back to so similar situation. It definitely won’t help tourism.

"I really can’t at this stage see any positivity to it. The only thing that we have as a hotel group here is that we have concentrated on the southern market."

He adds: "Last year my son took a look at the southern market. Normally the month of July would be 80 per cent northern Ireland to 20 per cent. He brought it up to 40 per cent."

There is another concern in Donegal. There are fears the fishing industry could be adversely affected by Brexit.

Fishing is a key industry for Killybegs. It’s natural deep water harbour makes it the country’s second largest fishing port and it provides major employment.

Marc Gallagher, is the skipper of the Vigilant, a 58 metre, 786 tonne fishing vessel. The Vigilant has been tied up since March because it reached it quotas of mackerel, whiting, horse mackerel, blue whiting and herring.

"We don’t have the European quota share to sustain our fishing for any longer," Marc explains. "It is very, very uncertain and has the potential to be catastrophic," he adds.

Gallagher is concerned about the impact on the Irish fishing industry if Britain regains control over its fishing waters.

"If UK gain full control of their waters and expel European fishing vessels, then the only realistic place for them to head is the west coast of Ireland. There is little enough for the Irish fishermen to catch without more boats coming in on top of us," warns Marc.

If there was an Irish version of Brexit, Marc says he would vote to leave the EU. "Even though it seems to be such chaos across the water I think most of the fishing industry in Ireland would vote to leave the EU. I have to say, I would be of the same regard.

"It’s down the quotas we have. We just don’t have the opportunities in our own waters to fish as we should. Why should we be held back?" he asks.

The big concern for Marc is the amount of catch that comes from UK waters. "This boat, last year alone, caught its entire mackerel quota in UK waters. Because we are so closely tied to the UK, out of 50 stocks that the Irish fish, 47 of them are shared with the UK. So from a fishing point of view we need to be both in the EU or both to be out of it.

"The fact that they are going their own way is a seismic shift in the relationship that we are going to have with the UK on the fishing front.

"The fear we have as fishermen is that the fishing industry as a coastal community, an isolated community, we are always expendable in negotiations."

CEO of the Killybegs Fishermens Association, Sean O’Donoghue, agrees. "Unless there is an agreement in terms of access and in terms of shares of stocks, it is going to be a major issue for us," says Sean. "It would be a total disaster for the Irish fishing industry," he adds.

The conversations with fishermen mark are the end of my three-day journey along the border, a journey that has highlighted uncertainty, fear and concern for communities, families and businesses facing the harsh realities of Brexit.

This series was broadcast on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1. You can listen to Cian’s report here:

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