placenamesPorturlin
Port Durlainne
A Porturlin-based company’s own history documents changing vessels and the development of crab fishing from the harbour.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Port Durlainne · Irish · main form · validated name
- Porturlin · English · main form
Place & story
A harbour-based enterprise
West Coast Crab Sales identifies Porturlin Harbour as the base of its family fishing business. Its published history records Patrick O’Donnell senior purchasing the crabber John Michelle in 1980. He subsequently moved to the larger Rachel Mary, which worked with a three-person crew. This account documents one strand of the harbour’s working life through named vessels and the people who operated them. [2]
A new generation at sea
The company records Jonathan O’Donnell joining the business aboard Rachel Mary in 2002 and acquiring James Collins in 2004. Patrick O’Donnell junior entered the business in 2011 and subsequently acquired the catamaran Aisling Patrick. These details belong to the company’s account of its own development, showing successive generations entering the same harbour-based trade rather than a history of every Porturlin fishing family. [2]
Changing boats and markets
The company describes further fleet investment in 2016, when Sean Óg 2 and Seimi entered its operations. Additional crabbers followed in 2021 and 2022. Its history connects those purchases with the development of markets for live crab. The vessel sequence illustrates changes in one local enterprise’s scale and equipment, while remaining a business history published by the operator itself. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Porturlin. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Our History, West Coast Crab Sales · West Coast Crab Sales Ltd
- A fishing boat at Porturlin pier, County Mayo, as photographed in May 2016 illustration: based on a Porturlin pier by Gordon Hatton. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2014-11-03. How this page was prepared.