Member Stories
Northern Celt
Northern Celt
Fleet Development
The McClenaghan family have a long history of fishing from Greencastle, with four generations of fishermen in the family. Adrian McClenaghan, owner of the Northern Celt, started fishing for salmon with his father at the age of twelve in 1979 and by sixteen was skippering his father’s 27’ timber half decker, St. Nicholas.
In 1985, after completing school, Adrian started fishing with his uncle, Patrick McClenaghan, on the first Foyle Warrior. Like most of the fleet at that time, the Foyle Warrior had an open deck and crew conditions onboard were tough in comparison to modern trawlers. The fishing was good though and after ten years as a crewman on deck Adrian decided to start his own family business.
Family Legacy
In 1995 he bought the 1975 built, Lunaria from Scotland, on which the family fished whitefish up until 2000. Adrian and his family then took the big decision to invest in the future of their business and commissioned a new vessel, Northern Celt SO 472, which was built in Spain in 2000. Adrian’s uncle, Patrick, also commissioned a sister vessel, the new Foyle Warrior SO 274, at the same time.
The family still fishes the Northern Celt, though these days Adrian spends more of his time ashore and his son, Shaun, and brother, Hugh, skipper the family vessel. The crew of eleven are all from the locality and include Adrian’s other son Mike and nephew Colum Browne, both of whom have their skippers tickets. Five of the crew have been with the boat since 2000 and is testament to the old adage, that “you are only as good as your crew and without a good loyal crew it is very hard to survive in this industry”. The crew rotate on a regular basis in order to give the men a better work/life balance.
Generational Commitment
The Northern Celt currently spends 5-10 days at sea and lands mostly in Greencastle into Foyle Fishermen’s Co-op, of which Adrian has been a lifelong member and chairman on several occasions. Their main species are Haddock, Whiting, Monkfish and Megrim. Adrian is a strong advocate for sustainable fisheries and the Northern Celt has taken part in several gear trials with BIM’s Fisheries Conservation team, aimed at reducing bycatch increasing selectivity of the trawl.
