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Arranmore’s Fishermen — A Living and a Legacy

What happens to an island when its fishermen can no longer make a living?

Kevin Green talks with Neilie Kavanagh, Jerry Early, Seamus Bonner and Muireann Kavanagh about fishing on Arranmore - from childhood days aboard family boats to the restrictions, rising costs and lost markets that have changed their livelihoods.

Their stories reveal how fishing supports much more than boats: families, local businesses, lifeboat crews and knowledge passed down through generations. Muireann’s determination to keep fishing brings the question into focus: will the next generation have the chance to carry it on?

Music credit: This episode features excerpts from “Island Fisherman” by John Gallagher and closes with the full song. With thanks to John Gallagher for its use.

Listen to John Gallagher on Spotify.

The Tides That Tie—the podcast about all things Arranmore and Beaver Island.

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Recorded live at the Beaver Island Community Center on September 12, 2026, this special episode features one of Ireland’s most celebrated traditional music groups, Altan. The band’s current members are Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Cathal Curran, Mark Kelly, Martin Tourish, and Clare Friel.

Kevin Green joins Altan for a conversation filled with music, laughter, and stories from Donegal. They discuss the families and musicians who shaped them, Donegal’s cultural connection with Scotland, and what gives the county’s music its distinctive sound.

Young Beaver Island dancers join the musicians onstage, bringing the music back to its traditional purpose: gathering people together and setting them in motion.

The musicians also reflect on the people and places carried within individual tunes, the importance of passing music between generations, and why home is sometimes more than a location—it is the language, music, and people gathered around you.

The Tides That Tie is hosted by Kevin Green and Ron Gregg and sponsored by the Beaver Island Irish Heritage Group.

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For nearly a century, the Arranmore Pipe Band has been woven into the life of Arranmore Island — marking celebrations, honoring those who have passed, and carrying a musical tradition from one generation to the next.

In this episode of The Tides That Tie, band members Sean Gallagher, Noreen Gaughran Lawler, Kayla Early and Proinsias Mac A' Bhaird share the band’s history, the legacy of the late Alec Brown, and the unforgettable 2023 journey to Beaver Island, Michigan.

It’s a story of music, migration, community, and the ties between two islands separated by an ocean — but connected by generations.