In what is clearly intended as their light entertainment story of the day, Thursday's Wall Street Journal has a long story (subs. req'd) about the disputes over fishing rights on the River Blackwater in Waterford and Cork. It presents the tangled history of land and water rights in the area, going back to Walter Raleigh's period in Lismore and up to the present when Chazza's pal Perry Cavendish (the Duke of Devonshire) runs a very successful tourist operation on the land -- but relying in part on the extensive ownership rights to the river that it allegedly comes with.
On the other side, local anglers and their so far unsuccessful attempts to legally fish the river, notwithstanding an appeal to one of the more arcane provisions of the Magna Carta (granting public fishing rights to the tidal portion of rivers). The story also notes the Free State's decision not to disposess the landed aristocracy, so despite the seemingly minor nature of the row, it does manage to straddle key bits of the history of Ireland since about, say, 1169 and counting. Since the story is behind subscription, if anyone would like a copy, just drop us a line and we'll see if this supposed ability of the WSJ website to e-mail stories to non-subscribers actually works.
UPDATE 26 JULY: The angler, Michael O'Shea, lost on his day in court (subs. req'd)
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