Whaling station brought ‘plague’ on north Mayo in 1909
By Tom Gillespie
PROPOSALS to establish a whaling station at Elly Bay in north Mayo in 1909 were harpooned by Mayo County Council who opposed the plan because there had been an outbreak of the dreaded beri-beri disease - a deficiency in vitamin B1 - at an existing whaling station on Inishkea Island South.
At a meeting of Mayo County Council on Saturday, October 2, 1909, with Mr. Bernard Egan, J.P., presiding, the action of the Department of Agriculture in granting a licence for a whaling station at Elly Bay and also on Rusheen, Inishkea island, was again discussed.
Mr. John Dillon, MP, wrote: “Please assure the council that they will have my heartiest cooperation in opposing the whaling station at Elly Bay. I have mentioned that I have entered into communication with the head of the Department on the matter.”
Dr. Ambrose, MP, writing from the House of Commons, said: “I will do my utmost to procure the revocation of the licence, but regret to say that the vice-president of the Department of Agriculture is obdurate on the point.”
Mr. T.P. Gill, secretary of the Department of Agriculture, sent a formal acknowledgement.
County secretary: I wrote to the Department asking them on what conditions the licence was granted.
Council chairman, Mr. Bernard Egan (Ardnaree): Did you get any answer from the Parliamentary representative for the division.
Secretary: No; not from Mr. John E. Redmond.
The following letter from the Department of Agriculture was read to members.
Sir, I have to state for the information of Mayo County Council that, before the licence to land whales and engage in the manufacture from whales of oil, and the other primary products, was granted to Blacksod Whaling Company, Ltd., the Department gave full consideration to the evidence given at the public inquiry in Belmullet last June (1909), and to all the circumstances of the case. The provisions under which a whaling licence may be cancelled are set forth in Act 8 Edward VII, Chapter 31, a copy of which is annexed, Signed T.P. Gill, secretary.
Mr. William Doris (Louisburgh): We have a pretty general knowledge of the conditions on which the licence was granted. They must destroy all refuse and keep the place in a perfectly sanitary condition.
Chairman: “Since passing our last resolution a state of things has occurred in Belmullet that is certainly dangerous to the public health.
“Not only have these whaling stations ruined the fisheries along the western coast, but also they have brought a plague upon the people.
“I believe you have all seen in the public Press the report of the medical officer of health in Belmullet to the local authority there to the effect that there was an outbreak of beri-beri amongst those Norwegians at the station in Inishkea.
“One of them was brought to hospital in Belmullet and had to be isolated, but fortunately the dreaded disease, which is very deadly and highly infectious, did not spread.
“The action of the board in granting this licence has not only ruined our once prosperous fisheries, but will ruin the people of the district.
“I think another resolution should be proposed and sent to the Department and members of Parliament for Mayo and the Chief Secretary with a view to stopping this whaling station they propose to erect at Belmullet.
“It is bad enough now as it is at Inishkea, where it is on the open Atlantic, but this new licence they have given for the station at Elly Bay is on a landlocked bay, and the tide there - no matter how it goes the flow and ebb are always the same - will bring the refuse from the station there from Blacksod Bay to Broadhaven Bay and passing through the canal at Belmullet, which connects the two bays, so that all this dangerous stuff will be brought up to Belmullet to endanger the lives of the people there and such dangerous stuff will bring a plague on the town and on the people living along that seaboard.
“It has already brought a plague to Inishkea but what will happen when one is established in a landlocked bay like Elly Bay?
“This is a most serious issue involved as the lives of the people are concerned. These Norwegians were driven out of their own country and refused a station off Donegal, and I do not see what right they have to settle themselves down in Mayo. Mr. Doris took an active part in trying to prevent them settling down in this county.”
Chairman: Now I have a resolution to propose on the subject and it is as follows: “That we, Mayo County Council, renew our demand for the withdrawal of the licence granted for the establishment of a whaling station at Elly Bay. We do so on the following grounds:
“That the presence of such a station would be ruinous to the fishing upon which so many of the inhabitants now depend for a livelihood. This has been the experience of Norway and other countries where whaling stations once existed and were afterwards prohibited, and for the same reason the Department of Agriculture refused absolutely to grant a licence for the establishment of a whaling station off Donegal.
“Since out last meeting there has been an outbreak of beri-beri in connection with the station at Inishkea, one of the sailors employed by the Whaling Company has been in Belmullet Hospital suffering from the dread disease. Judging from the report of Dr. McHale, a medical officer of health of Belmullet union, it is evident the business of the whaling company endangers the health of the people and is calculated to make life in the district intolerable.
“We protest against the action of the Department in subjecting our people to such a serious and unnecessary risk, and we request the Irish members of Parliament and the Government to give their immediate consideration to these facts with a view to the early withdrawal of the licence.”
The chairman, continuing, said in proposing the resolution he would say that the Department was acting in a very peculiar manner as there were forcing these stations on the Irish people while one of them would not be allowed on the English coast.
Mr. Doris: They tried it in Scotland and failed.
The resolution was passed and the subject dropped.
FOOTNOTE: The outbreak of World War One was the death knell of whaling in north Mayo. All fishing stopped in August 1914, and the Norwegians left for home. The station was taken over in 1915 by the British Admiralty who used it as a petrol base until 1918.