Skip to content
Support Us

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Pictures: Locals flock to see 20 metre fin whale washed up on Achill beach

The mammal was stranded on Christmas Eve.

Updated at 2.37pm

image

[Image: Tom Honeyman]

A STEADY STREAM of people have been making trips to Keel Beach on Achill Island over the last few days to the spot where a 20 metre fin whale which stranded on the shoreline on Christmas Eve.

According to local RNLI officers, the mammal was alive when it beached, but died a few hours later.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin group says that although the whale is dead, “it is still a fantastic opportunity to witness the second largest animal on the planet close up”:

IWDG chair Willie Meuhlausen travelled up to take samples including skin, blubber, muscle and baleen as well as photographs.

It is not possible to tel from photographs supplied by Tom Honeyman from Achill whether the whale was in poor condition when it stranded.

The fate of the whale is not known but it will most likely remain on Keel beach over the next few days.

Achill Coast Guard say that, in view of the current stormy conditions, they’re urging people not to venture into the surf to view the whale, which they say can be easily viewed from the shore.

All photos: Tom Honeyman

First posted at 11am

Read: Man gets slapped by a huge humpback whale

Read: Rare sabre-toothed whale found dead on California beach

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
45 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
    Favourite Mr Snuffleupagus
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:07 PM

    And those less well off are less likely to vote. But when mobilised. can turn an election. That’s what we are seeing. And why do the less well off react to issues like immigration in such force? Because low paid workers are the ones who have to compete with immigrants, many of who will work for far less wages, and therefore they drive the supply of jobs and wages for those jobs downwards. Can you blame them for opposing immigration?

    116
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
    Favourite Mr Snuffleupagus
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:10 PM

    “It’s the economy stupid”

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick Gough
    Favourite Patrick Gough
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:16 PM

    Mr that is so true. All politicians use the poor vote to get elected. and then turn their back on them. It’s happened forever and will continue for ever.

    57
    See 6 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
    Favourite Mr Snuffleupagus
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:19 PM

    @Patrick Gough: Total and simple manipulation, Brexit and Trump used it to good effect, and Clinton lost as she didn’t address them in the first place.

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
    Favourite Francis Mc Carthy
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:22 PM

    @Mr Snuffleupagus: And ‘Don the Con’ is the very man to sort that out for those poor devils,that is of course, after he gets another few foreign workers to work in his vineyard for $10 an hour..Oh,and those pesky foreign workers will have to pay for a place to stay,too..Yikes! By the way…did the lads that flew into the twin towers come into the USA through that foreign visa that the Don is using ? Hmmmmm

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Red Marauder
    Favourite Red Marauder
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:49 PM

    Funny that no too many Americans seem to be that interested in flipping burgers,picking up laundry, dishwasher or picking strawberries or what industry are you exactly referring too where they have to compete

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
    Favourite Mr Snuffleupagus
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 1:21 PM

    @Red Marauder: Any industry you choose.Large scale Immigration into Ireland is a very new phenomenon. Prior to that. there were plenty of people here willing to work in McDonalds, do laundry and pick strawberries. You have essentially made my point. It’s now been outsourced to immigrants as they’ll do it for half nothing.

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Red Marauder
    Favourite Red Marauder
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 1:46 PM

    I disagree, there is of course the minimum wage each worker is entitled too, not half, look at the Netherlands for example, which has on of the lowest employment rates of the European, yet nr1 issue is migration and right wing party is doing well in the polls, there are other things at play there, most migration is from EU citizens coming to Ireland, not from middle east or south America

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Kirk
    Favourite Chris Kirk
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 11:57 PM

    @Mr Snuffleupagus: And look which parties let in the most migrants, doesn’t seem to reflect on them winning elections based on media spin and lies. The UK electorate have continued to be duped by the tories since 2010, when will they wake up and realise this.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eamon Mac Gowan
    Favourite Eamon Mac Gowan
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:46 PM

    We can’t have a functioning democracy when one man practically controls the entire media and uses the courts to stamp out any dissenting opinions.

    62
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kerry Blake
    Favourite Kerry Blake
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:04 PM

    Well you can see from the spending the main parties here in Ireland engage in during elections that it’s all about money.

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Micheal OLainn
    Favourite Micheal OLainn
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:16 PM

    @Kerry Blake: having significant media interests and resulting opinion influence also helps.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Greg Blake
    Favourite Greg Blake
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 2:22 PM

    I think they are still failing to see the worldwide shift, recessions have come before and people swung left or right. This time it’s more than that because people recognise that their is a general failure to deliver from established parties, the don’t trust any of them to raise standards or work in their interest, hence the protest vote, which could be in any direction so long as it gives the fingers.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Micheal OLainn
    Favourite Micheal OLainn
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:10 PM

    Put very simply in Irish terms, if you are comfortably off, have a good life style, good housing and access to education and health for your children, there will be a tendency to have a smug and complacent satisfaction with FF and FG. These parties look after the haves and ensure the protection and advancement of privilege.

    If life is difficult and austerity has bitten more severely in its impact on you, your family and your community, then you will be less likely to be so wholehearted in your support of FF and FG.

    There are exceptions. For example, austerity, insecurity and harsh times will move some of the victims of austerity and socially discriminatory policies to the hard right, blaming immigration, for example, as the threat to their continuing survival.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Kirk
    Favourite Chris Kirk
    Report
    Dec 26th 2016, 12:16 AM

    @Micheal OLainn: To be honest Michael, if you feel like that why bother voting at all because things will never change to suit the majority of people in this country. Having a paid job is your sense of worth to society and doing something to help your community should be enough to satisfy most people.
    For many of us iIt isn’t a fight against the system it is to try and improve our self worth in a selfish society. If you aspire to a certsin lifestyle then for most of us it is to work for it.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alex Falcone
    Favourite Alex Falcone
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 1:22 PM

    Hard to argue with the findings.
    The problem of course for Democrats is that they eventually ran out of other people’s money to spend.
    Hence their darling Hillary being banished to the political wilderness.
    Which I’m quite OK with to be honest.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Francis Mc Carthy
    Favourite Francis Mc Carthy
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 3:21 PM

    @Alex Falcone: Who’s money is Trump spending to “keep” those jobs in Carrier ? Do tell.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Micheal OLainn
    Favourite Micheal OLainn
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:15 PM

    The vote of a wealthy person carries more influence than the vote of a poor person.

    Governments respond to the lobbying and influence of the wealthy, not of the poor.

    The wealthy use money, the media and other methods of control and influence over public opinion to put into power the Government they know will be most protective of their wealth and privileged.

    Does anyone seriously think that, as a citizen, they have as an individual even a tiny fraction of the influence and direction of Denis O’Brien?

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Avina Laaf
    Favourite Avina Laaf
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:24 PM

    One of the things about living in a democracy is that the vote of a poor person is worth the exact same as the vote of a wealthy person.
    There’s no doubt that wealth buys influence and smooths the road towards standing for election, but that’s a different issue.

    37
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Micheal OLainn
    Favourite Micheal OLainn
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 9:33 PM

    @Avina Laaf: but you overlook the why of voting and who is voted for. Each bpvotr counts equally but what influences the what and the why of voting for particulate candidates and the vested interests that they represent cannot be ignored.

    The second dimension is that par works well when there is real politucal chiice but poorly when the range of views expressed by candidates is limited.

    It is important to look under the surface and not to be beguiled by simplistic understandings.

    1
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Kirk
    Favourite Chris Kirk
    Report
    Dec 26th 2016, 12:20 AM

    @Micheal OLainn: Well if you buy newspapers owed by Denis O’Brien or Rupert Murdock you get what you pay for…..pure rubbish and propaganda, so stop buying them.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute George Brown
    Favourite George Brown
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:55 PM

    It’s not just income inequality. It’s also that a large portion of the country felt POLITICALLY and/or CULTURALLY unequal… Suffocating and being overpowered by the leftist establishment government, bullsh*t MSM, narcissistic moralising academia and SJWs, and perceived existential threats such as globalised capitalism, Jihadism, multi-culturalism and so on.

    People wanted a major shift culturally. Trump was seen as a “change candidate” in more ways than economic.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bairéid Rísteard
    Favourite Bairéid Rísteard
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 1:29 PM

    @George Brown: you got it in one! Just add 2nd and 3rd wave feminism to the list.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jack O'Sullivan
    Favourite Jack O'Sullivan
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 7:43 PM

    Shame how tarnished feminism’s name has become since BuzzFeed and the like tried to associate themselves with it

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Graham McKibbin
    Favourite Graham McKibbin
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:24 PM

    Paul lad, tell your (bah humbug) boss to go stuff a Christmas pudding in their Gob and then go home to your family. Whatever news there is today can be read tomorrow. Have a Happy Chrimbo !!

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
    Favourite Mr Snuffleupagus
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:32 PM

    @Graham McKibbin: He probably is at home. The vast majority of today’s article so far are not time relevant. They are written a few days ago most likely. This is normal at Xmas in media too. Skelton staff, prewritten articles.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cormac Bergin
    Favourite Cormac Bergin
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 4:37 PM

    This is a typical tabloid statement from a sheep that follows what the political consensus say to justify their battered egos after having the muck beaten out of than by an electorate that are just fed up of corrupt imbeciles at the helm of the titanic who’s manifest is only to find icebergs instead of finding a destination where everyone wants to go.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
    Favourite Neuville-Kepler62F
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 9:29 PM

    All politics is local .. and there’s nothing more local than people’s wallets.

    To win voter support taxes must comply with principles of taxation (in a word fairness):-
    - No 2-Tier Taxes .. LPT (owners taxed but not state housed), Car Tax (pre 2008 v post 2008), Water (Urban v rural)
    - No Regressive Taxes .. LPT, Car Tax, Water, VAT on first time buyers .. fails to allow for inability to pay.
    - No Taxes on “Life Essentials” , Food (incl water), air, shelter, clothing, sanitation, health, personal transport, ed …
    - Comply with Canons of Taxation .. must allow for inability to pay..

    Else we are all moving quickly to political and social unrest .. more Brexits, Trumps, Le Pens …

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Kirk
    Favourite Chris Kirk
    Report
    Dec 26th 2016, 12:06 AM

    @Neuville-Kepler62F: Thats an interesting observation, but we should also realise in Ireland that services need to be paid for especialy when workers are relying of their income.
    Talking to an elderly friend this week living alone in the UK and paying £1,100 per year council tax. I think that there would be riots in the streets of Ireland if the government here imposed council tax.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
    Favourite Neuville-Kepler62F
    Report
    Dec 26th 2016, 12:24 PM

    @Chris Kirk: Nail on the head why Brexit happened …. UK political class utterly vindictive, even imposed a bedroom tax (spare) on family homes. No pensioner (or family) should be taxed on their Family Home. It is a Life essential (shelter).

    Progressive, appropriate, moderate and fair taxes are acceptable to fund public services.

    Taxes which fail the 4 Frameworks of Good Taxation Policy should be abolished. Broadening the tax base is not acceptable when they fail basic canons of taxation rules .. such as “ability to pay”!

    Italy abolished its hated LPT on family homes in Dec 2015.
    Sweden abolished its hated inheritance tax . TD knocks on the door on the death of a relative demanding tax.
    France abolished its annual Motor tax in 2001. Personal transport (car) is a basic need in modern world.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rosa Parks
    Favourite Rosa Parks
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 8:21 PM

    Economic inequality is not noticed by the elite because 99% of the increases in income go to them. And then they are shocked when we dont vote as they command.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dom Morgan
    Favourite Dom Morgan
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 10:27 PM

    “…..driven largely by the very rich getting richer…”

    As to why this is the case would be too much for our shallow pencil-pushers who like to refer to themselves as ‘journalists’.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Hynes
    Favourite Stephen Hynes
    Report
    Dec 25th 2016, 12:06 PM

    And what

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds