Let’s not repeat mistakes of the past

In the early ’60s the Verolme Ship Building Co built a shipyard in Rushbrooke in Cork harbour and facilitated the training of hundreds of Irish men in the ship building yards of Holland.

There are a lot of men alive today who will remember those years. One mile down the river there was a steel works.

Now here’s the thing: You might think was a golden opportunity for the government of the day to put two and two together and, using Verolme with Cork Steel, to build a fishing fleet worthy of an island nation sitting out in the Atlantic with vast fishing grounds and training hundreds more of young Irish men in the seafaring and fishing skills.