22/09/2026
Great photo of the local fleet back in the day. Great boats and even greater fishermen.
Fond Memories of the Aran Fishing Fleet in days gone by...
A lovely photo of the Aran fishing fleet at Cill Rónáin, including, nearest to the camera, Ros Ronain (D261), Ros Éinne (D142) and Ard Rathain (D262)
Ros Ronain (D261) owned by Martin Chóle, covered for the Naomh Éanna while she was away in Dublin for her annual makeover and also collected the post and cargo in Rós a Mhíl them days. Ros Ronain was built in Baltimore on January 1957. Her last known whereabouts, she was seen as a wreck near Kilrush about 10 years ago. Sadly I would take it she is now gone.
Known owners of Ros Ronain (D261) during her fishing years:
O'Flaherty, Kilronan; Neil Ward, Burtonport; Tony O'Farrell, Limerick.
Ard Rathain was originally skippered in 1957 by a man well known in the islands, the late Pádraig Willie McDonagh from An Cheathrú Rua in Connemara. It was later skippered by the late Ciarán Gill before he launched his own boat, the Ard Scia in 1966.
After the sinking of his trawler Ard Aengus in November 1968, Gregory Conneely bought the Ard Rathain, she later fished out of Skerries for years, owned and skipped by Seamus Sheriff Corr and by all reports she was a good little money maker in her day..
Ros Éinne we covered in our last post and some of the other boats in the photo may well be recognised by some of our keen eyed followers.
