1729, 5 Apr
Smuggling activity in Corca Dhuibhne
Marmaduke Coghill, a Revenue officer in Dublin, complained to Viscount Perceval that raw wool smuggling from Dingle was rife, that customs officials there had been frequently `beaten, wounded and abused`, and that `this county [Kerry] is not within the law`. Between 1700 and 1740, the Dingle peninsula was among a number of places that Revenue officials suspected for the smuggling of raw wool and yarn to France, which was more lucrative that selling it legitimately in Cork or Bristol. Between 1733 and 1741, 205 ships laden with Irish raw wool and yarn arrived in Nantes. Fifteen of them came from Dingle, 20 from Bantry, 84 from Cork, 27 from other places on the southwest Munster coast and 5 from Waterford.
