The Fishing Daily Podcast Series 3 Episode 10 - In this episode of The Fishing Daily Podcast, CJ Gaffney, former owner of the beam trawler Mary Kate WD-30, talks to Oliver McBride about his struggle to obtain justice and how the ghost of the Mary Kate still haunts him and his family.

A decade and a half of torture hasn’t ended for CJ Gaffney even with his former fishing boat, the Mary Kate WD-30, now lying in New Ross, Co Waterford as scrap metal.
The Mary Kate is a ghost ship that haunts CJ’s past, present and future as his battle for justice against the Irish Government continues.

From the moment the plans of the Evert Jan SC-30 were approved in the Netherlands, there was something very wrong. After the beam trawler was built, launched and tested on sea trials, there was something very wrong. When the boat was put on the Dutch fishing vessel register and in later years transferred onto the fishing vessel register for Germany, there was something very wrong. And when CJ Gaffney and his family bought the Maarten Senior SC-30 in 2007 and renamed the vessel the Mary Kare WD-30, the Marine Survey Office in Ireland accepted all its previous certificates of seaworthiness without knowing that something was very wrong.

Twenty tonnes of unaccounted for steel was in the hull of the Mary Kate, left the beam trawler dangerously unstable, and by 2009, CJ and his crew found themselves in life-threatening danger during normal fishing operations.

Now, this happening in one fishing vessel would be bad enough, but nine of these sisterships were produced in the Netherlands, and two proved fatal, but yet Dutch authorities have not launched an inquiry or criminal investigation into how these EuroCutters were approved.

Closer to home, CJ is fighting a battle with the Irish government. He recently lodged a petition called the Justice and Safety petition with the Committee on Petitions.

His long campaign has the support in the Irish fishing industry, Ireland’s MEPs in the EU have all backed him, his local Council in Wicklow, numerous TDs from all parties, and even the European Commission has given an opinion that CJ should be compensated for the losses he incurred due to the Mary Kate, but the Irish government insists they have nothing to do with the issue as it was a commercial transaction; one which they totally failed to legislate for.

His campaign so far has saved dozens of lives of fishermen onboard the Mary Kate’s sisterships and other vessels with the EU recognising the lack of safeguards for boat buyers, but he himself has fallen through the legal systems cracks.

As CJ tells us in the interview, he is not looking for loss of earnings or to be compensated for the years of mental anguish. He wants to clear his debt incurred by the purchase and subsequent losses of trying to right the Mary Kate, but most of all, he just wants this nightmare to end so he and his family can live the rest of their lives in peace.

In this interview, CJ tells his story, the Mary Kate's Story and what it has been like living in a nightmare for 14 years.

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Podcast music used with kind permission of In Their Thousands – Acrasia © In Their Thousands 2018. Check them out on Spotify