Businesses closed, boats pulled into the harbour and the town of Castletownbere stood still for an hour yesterday to hear addresses by politicians, IFA leaders and fishing industry representatives on "a day of action" for fishermen.
Some six thousand families in the the south-west of the country are solely reliant upon fishing for their incomes.
Mr Simon Coveney TD, Fine Gael spokesman on the marine and natural resources, spoke to a rally of over 1,000 people.
"The Common Fisheries Policy is about coastal communities. It's up to the policy-makers to keep fishing alive in towns like Castletownbere, Dingle, Baltimore and Crosshaven," Mr Coveney said.
In Castletownbere alone 65 per cent of people living there relied directly on fishing.
"Towns like Castltownbere would not exist without the fishing industry," he said.
The "miserable" 5 per cent EU quota which Irish fishermen held would have to be renegotiated and the Irish delegation should not leave the summit without getting at least "7, 8 or 9 per cent", Mr Coveney said.
"We cannot kill off the fishing industry to conserve stocks," he added.
The fishing industry, rural communities and the stocks had to be conserved.
What Mr Coveney termed "the Spanish armada" was being kept out of the Irish Box legally at the moment and this could not become a bargaining chip to allow more than 40 Spanish vessels to enter, he said.
There was only one opportunity every 20 years to renegotiate the fisheries policy.
"No deal is better than a bad deal," he said reading from a poster.
The consequences for Skibbereen of a downturn of the fishing industry would be "a disaster", its mayor, Mr Bernie Daly, said. Over 600 people, "the equivalent of a major factory in west Cork", were employed in the industry in the area.
The farming community was solidly behind the fishermen of west Cork, Mr Donal Kelly, vice president of Munster IFA, said.
The manager of the Castletownbere Fishermen's Co-op, Mr John Nolan, said they watched the Spanish fleet landing every weekend with tonnes of fish that then left the country by truck. "Create the jobs in Ireland, not send the lorries out to France and Spain," he said.
The fish-processing industry employed 5,000 in west Cork alone, he added.
"For too long we have been too good Europeans, now is the time for us to be good Irishmen," Mr Nolan said to widespread applause.Fishing, farming and tourism were the three industries in Castletownbere, but fishing was "the backbone" and the most important, said Mr Denis Reagan, chairman of the Beara Action Group.
• Several hundred fishermen from ports across the south-east were joined by family and friends at Dunmore East yesterday afternoon for a protest over what they see as the threat to the Irish fishing industry, writes Carol Duffy.
Mr Michael Walsh, chairman of the Irish South & East Fisherman's Organisation, highlighted the lack of a voice for fishermen in their own industry.
"We are seeking compromises in the Common Fisheries Policy. We are looking for fair play and are sick of going outside the country looking for quotas to fish our own waters," Mr Walsh emphasised.
"Irish fishermen are already helping conserve fish stocks. What we can't have is Spanish fishermen coming in depleting stocks. The European Commission has stated that two-thirds of the fish stock in its waters has depleted. This is not the fault of Irish fisherman and we should not be affected by this.
"We fish very little outside our area and have only a small number of vessels fishing inside."