Having been born in Toome, and, as a nipper, having gone out on to the lough with both the licensed fishermen and 'poachers', whose boats were less than half a mile way around the shore, I am pretty well bound to chip in to this thread. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I thought this issue had been resolved some years ago. The monopoly of the Toome Eel Fishery originates, I think, in rights given to the City of London by King James to encourage it to invest and set up plantations in this part of Northern Ireland. But was not the fishery bought out by a commune of eel fishermen in the 1960s? For sure, it has been a complex issue. Being from Toome does not mean, of course, that I am qualified to make head or tail of any of it. But I would be interested to know of any authoritative account.