As if to disobey the laws of pathetic fallacy the seas under Charlie Boy 2, one of the last full-time fishing boats in Killybegs, remained calm on Monday.
The mind of its owner, John Menarry, however, was turbulent. A few hundred metres off the Donegal coast, he was checking lobster pots.
Recent Chinese new year celebrations 8,000km away meant an uptick in demand for crab – this he foresaw – but the outbreak of the war 6,500km away in the Middle East meant his catch was returned due to a cancelled flight.
The same war had seen his oil costs spiral nearly 55 per cent in 10 days and the price of bait could soon nearly double.
RM Block
This solitary fisherman was running an international business and faraway bombs were crashing waves on to it. The idea of globalisation has been entrenched in trade going back hundreds if not thousands of years.
The under-fire Iranian capital of Tehran was a point of passage on the Silk Road trade route over 2,000 years ago.
However, since the fall of the Berlin Wall the world has become increasingly interconnected and disruptions of trade routes on Saturday can see petrol pump prices increase on Monday. This interconnected world has also led to the depletion of daily fishermen in Killybegs.
Larger boats can catch fishing quotas in a matter of days and then follow the shoals to other waters.
