Are Spanish fishermen as bad as they are portrayed? Are they the high-seas bullies who ram and otherwise intimidate Irish trawlers to net the best fish available in our waters, or is that a propaganda-fuelled media perception?
The recent blockade of two south-west ports has once again brought Irish fishermen and their Spanish counterparts into direct focus.
Castletownbere, Co Cork, one of the main fishing ports in the south-west, is a good place to find out if there really is a war between Spanish and Irish fishermen. The best person to ask is Cornelio O'Donovan, the leading Spanish agent in the region.
How a native of Millstreet changed his name from Diarmuid to Cornelio and came to be a fluent Spanish speaker, responsible for the crews of 200 Spanish boats fishing around the south-west coast, and the Spanish consul for Co Cork, is an interesting story, but Cornelio (Derry) O'Donovan would first prefer to talk about the fishermen he represents.
The Spanish, he says, are respected as hard-working fishermen who do a tough job a long way from home. He concedes there are some hot-heads among them as there are within the Irish fishing community, but by and large, the Spanish are not looking for trouble or notoriety and certainly not the kind of notoriety which makes newspaper headlines.
Perhaps the most dramatic example of this was the tragic death a few years ago of Danny "Boy" O'Driscoll, the skipper of the Exodus fishing out of Castletownbere, who was drowned when a Spanish-owned vessel cut the trawler in two. There was great grief - and anger - in the fishing town. The immediate suspicion was that the Exodus had been rammed and that O'Driscoll had died because of a wilful act of aggression by the Spaniards. That was not the case.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the collision at sea between the steel-hulled Sea Horse and the timber-built Exodus was as a result of a combination of circumstances which no one could have foreseen. In the seconds after the accident, the Spanish acted valiantly in trying to save Danny O'Driscoll's life, but it was too late.
That incident aside, Irish fishermen have complained on many occasions over the years that the Spanish have used their superior boats to intimidate and sometimes ram Irish trawlers, which has led to bad blood between the two sides.
Ramming at sea seems to have abated recently but groups such as the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation continue to pinpoint other forms of intimidation as a source of friction. Indeed, in recent weeks, the suspicion has grown that because of Spanish influence in the EU Fisheries Commission, Irish tuna fishermen have been singled out for special attention by the Naval Service while the Spanish have been allowed a free hand.
Matters came to a head a week ago when the fourth Irish tuna trawler in succession was arrested on suspicion of illegal fishing. Why were the Spanish tuna boats not arrested or even searched, asked the Irish fishermen. Only 18 Irish boats have licences to fish for tuna and four of them, according to the Irish side, had been treated harshly.
The angry fishermen couldn't seem to get the attention of the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, but they did by blockading two ports, Castletownbere, and Dingle, Co Kerry. Within two days, the Minister went to Kenmare to meet the fishermen and their representatives.
The situation was defused and the blockades lifted. Mr Fahey promised to meet them again in Castletownbere last Thursday for further talks.
AT THE meeting in Kenmare, Mr Fahey promised local fishermen they would have the full protection of the Naval Service and that intimidation by foreign boats would not be allowed.
Equally, he said there would be no let-up in the pursuit of those fishermen, Irish or otherwise, who continued to fish using illegal gear. The talks were held at the BIM training school in Castletownbere. Moored at the rear of the building, which overlooks the quayside, was a Spanish tuna trawler which had been arrested the night before on technical fishing offences.
Some of the local fishermen said they even felt sorry for the Spanish owners who seemed to have become as much a part of the wider political plot as they had themselves.
The belief that politics at the highest level has a lot to do with how fishermen are treated under the law was hardened when Mr Fahey said after the Kenmare meeting that he was under pressure not only from the EU but from the US government to crack down on any form of illegal tuna fishing. For EU, the Irish fishermen read Spanish.
Mr Fahey denied the arrest of the Spanish boat was merely a sop to placate the Irish.
More often than not, when the Irish complain about heavy-handed competitors using their stronger and more powerful boats to shunt them out of fishing grounds to which they have entitlement, they are referring to the Spanish. The Spanish have a fishing machine second to none and the industry is to Spain what agriculture is to Ireland.
One of the more serious complaints is that the Spanish use their nets to block off huge areas of sea - a 200-mile rectangle is cited as an example - and then prevent the Irish boats from entering the cordoned-off zone by threatening and intimidating them. The Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation says there are numerous recent examples of this.
Mr Fahey has promised greater surveillance by the Naval Service to deal with it.
At the end of the day, however, the Spanish fishing boats must land their catches in ports such as Castletownbere and mingle with the local fishing community. They are able to do so, says Derry O'Donovan, with no great problem and up to 20 of them with their partners and families have settled in the fishing town and are now earning their living on Irish trawlers.
A point not often made is that the huge Spanish fleet fishing off the south-west coast for hake, monkfish, cod, whiting and megrim brings its own economic dynamic to fishing towns. The trawlers stay at sea for up to eight days and must take on sufficient diesel supplies before they leave. The fuel is supplied locally at a cost of about £5,000 a trawler.
When the trawlers return, they are met by a refrigerated lorry which leaves Castletownbere for a ferry port bound for Spain. The cost of sending a driver and lorry to Spain adds a further £2,500 to the local economy. The trawlers must be provided with food and ice, which is also supplied locally at a cost of up to £1,000 for each trawler.
As the agent, Derry O'Donovan deals with everything and anything that might arise when the Spanish fleet is fishing. This includes illness at sea, breakdowns, interpreting in court when arrests are made and handling the turnover of crews.
"I handle most things for them but I have no control over what happens at sea. The majority of the fishermen are just out there earning a living and don't want confrontation. Everyone I spoke to at the time was deeply shocked at Danny O'Driscoll's death. At the same time, arguments and incidents are unavoidable and they will happen in the fishing industry the same as in any other industry," he said.
Mr Jason Whooley, manager of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation, is adamant that intimidation by the Spanish continues and that they are laying claim to cordoned-off areas of the fishing grounds at the expense of Irish fishermen. Ramming incidents, when they occur, are headline-grabbers, he adds but otherwise, there are few problems with the Spanish.
"In general, there is no problem. They are trying to earn a living like everyone else and some of them are now settling here in Castletownbere without any difficulty. It's unacceptable, though, when our boats are told by the Spanish that, for want of a better phrase, they have created a no-go area and we cannot fish there.
"That's one of the key issues we want the Government to tackle," he said.
Miguel Rosales is one of the Spaniards who now calls Castle townbere home. Life in his native Marin in north-western Spain is somewhat more hectic than in south-west Cork, he says, but for now he plans to visit Spain only on holidays.
"The fishing is good here and Castletownbere people are very nice, very friendly. There is no trouble here for us, they are good people. I like living here. I like Ireland," he said.
At 15, Derry O'Donovan left Millstreet to join a Spanish Augustinian order. He spent three years at the order's British house in Devon before moving to San Sebastian in Spain, where he remained until he was 22. "Diarmuid" was too difficult for the Spanish so they named him Cornelio instead.
He left the order without being ordained and, now fluent in Spanish, worked in Bantry as an assistant to a shipping agent there. In 1970, he opened his own business in Castletownbere.
From small beginnings, handling a small number of Spanish trawlers, he has become a vital part of a huge Spanish fishing operation. A few years ago, this was recognised by the Spanish government when he was appointed honorary consul to Co Cork.