A PECULIAR story, said to have been ‘passed by Censor’ appeared in the Irish papers last Monday. It came from Skibbereen (Co Cork) and was dated May 4th 1917 – three weeks before the day of publication. The tale was to the effect that ‘German submarines had been engaged in the destruction of Irish fishing fleets from Kenmare in Kerry to Howth in Dublin’.
The writer claimed: ‘On a recent evening the Baltimore fleet [Co Cork], numbering about 80 boats of all classes and embracing several Arklow [Co Wicklow] vessels, set out to fish for mackerel. Before long, seven of them had been sunk by bombs placed on board by the crew of a U-boat which attacked a portion of the fleet 20 miles off Baltimore. The fishermen were only allowed ten and, in some cases, three minutes to get out of their boats.
The report continued: ‘Had it not been for the appearance of a British patrol boat which caused the submarine to submerge at sight, it is certain that the whole fleet would have been destroyed. Among the boats sunk were two fine motor-boats belonging to the Baltimore Piscatorial Schools ... The Germans did not spare even the smaller craft….The Germans deserve no thanks for they refused the fishermen permission to take oars into their punts.
‘The Germans intimated that they had sunk all the Kinsale fishing boats and had destroyed the Waterford fishing fleet. They declared that “they would have every Irish fishing boat at the bottom of the sea before a month” and, further, one of the submarine crew stated they intended “shelling villages on the Irish coast shortly”.’
The Irish News commented editorially: ‘Now, experience has proved that the Germans are capable of behaving in the manner described off the Irish or any other coast. But did they perform the deeds attributed to them from Howth to Kenmare? The message quoted above seems to have been ‘passed’ by some Censor. Had the Admiralty nothing to say about nefarious transactions happening off the Irish coast? Only a few Irish papers accepted the Censor-passed narrative of brutal destruction; clearly the other journals did not believe it and, for our own part, we could not understand why such atrocities should have been officially cloaked for three weeks.
(In this rare breach of the wartime censorship laws the Irish News dared to question a clearly ‘planted’ story of German U-Boat attacks on the Irish fishing industry as dubious.)