Casting shadows Fish and fishing in Britain

Lough Neagh was fished for its eels from the time of the first human occupation several thousand years ago. But until the middle of the 19th century consumption was local and trade minimal. The growth of the rail network changed all that, as so much else. The fish merchants at Billingsgate in London began shipping live eels over to Liverpool from Coleraine, the port near the mouth of the Bann, and then by train to London. The trade was much helped by the eel’s remarkable tenacity in clinging to life — kept cool and damp, they comfortably survived transportation, and on arrival could be kept in good condition in tanks for weeks.

Quite suddenly Lough Neagh’s eels became a valuable commodity. I told the long and complicated story of the struggle between the fishermen and the landowners over who had the rights to take them in , and I do not propose to retell it here. Suffice to say