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Displaying items by tag: Cookstown

Anglers in Northern Ireland have described a “massacre” on a Co Tyrone river after a slurry spill resulted in a major fish kill incident, prompting an official investigation into the source.

The spill on the Claggan River was discovered last weekend with Ballinderry Rivers Trust reporting that “thousands of litres of slurry” were moving downstream to the Killymoon River near Cookstown.

According to Coagh Angling Club, a “massacre” of fish — including young salmon and native dollaghan, as well as breeding and baby trout and eggs — was witnessed several miles upstream of its waters.

On Tuesday (29 March) another incident was reported on a tributary above Coagh weir, where the waters appeared “green with slurry”.

The club’s John Hagan told the Belfast Telegraph that it will take years to recover from the environmental damage.

“We don’t know the full environmental impact of it just yet, but we do know that there's probably about 12-15 miles of river near the source of the Ballinderry which is just dead,” he said.

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

Published in Angling

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.