A UK patrol ship has warned an Irish fishing vessel that it can no longer fish in the waters around Rockall in the North Atlantic.

A Marine Scotland crew boarded the Donegal boat yesterday and informed the fishermen they would no longer be permitted to fish within 12-miles of the disputed rock.

Ireland does not recognise UK sovereignty over the rock and, in a statement this evening, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it had contacted UK authorities about the incident.

“We are aware of contact between an Irish fishing vessel and a Marine Scotland patrol vessel yesterday, January 4th,” said a spokesman.

“We are in contact with the Scottish and the UK authorities on this.”

Rockall

Rockall, an uninhabited rock some 400km west of the Donegal coast, has long been at the centre of a territorial dispute between Ireland and the UK.

Irish fishing vessels have operated there for decades under the EU Common Fisheries Policy; however, Brexit has reignited the dispute.

File photo of the Irish Navy LÉ Róisín at Rockall, 12-10-2012. Image: Óglaigh na hÉireann

After the Scottish Government in 2019 warned that it would take “enforcement action” against Irish boats operating in the area, the Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said Ireland has “never recognised UK sovereignty over Rockall.”

He said Ireland does not recognise any territorial waters around Rockall and the Government’s “longstanding position” is that Irish fishermen are entitled to operate there.

Dispute

The United Kingdom claims to have formally taken possession of Rockall in the name of the British crown on the 18th of September 1955. It sought to formally annex it under its 1972 Island of Rockall Act.

The claim was never recognised by Ireland – although the Government has never sought to claim sovereignty for itself.

The position of successive Irish Governments has been that ocean rocks and Skerries like Rockall have no significance for establishing legal claims to mineral rights in the seabed or to fishing rights in the surrounding seas.

Iceland and Denmark have both attempted to claim the rock as their own at different times.