Paul Gerard Boyle, 70, of Bayfield, Antigonish County, born and raised on the shore of St. George’s Bay, and who spent his life fishing it, was, by all accounts, a singular, colourful character. His unmatched skills at the wheel of a fishing boat, his physical strength and passionate, demanding approach to the hard work were well known to fellow fishers. As was a certain honourable quality, his penchant for always reaching out to help others, his Irish humour, and his meticulous craftsmanship. Paul died Thursday, July 17, at St. Martha’s Hospital after becoming sick with cancer in early spring.
Born June 7,1955, the eldest of five children of James Sylvester and Helen Muriel (Bakewell) Boyle, Paul was a descendant of the line of Irish Boyles who settled and eventually fished and farmed the Bayfield area. His father was a World War Two veteran who served with the 6th Canadian Anti-tank Regiment, 74th Battery.
Paul liked to read and was a good student at the old Bayfield school. He later studied boat building in Bridgewater, hitchhiking home on weekends. In 1977, he took over his father’s fishing licence and fished lobster with his brother Martin for many years. Paul was experienced in hand-lining, hauling heavy lobster traps from the sea floor by hand and working from a small open boat. It was a feat of strength not everyone could match. He excelled as a fisherman and was known for his ability to find the fish and successfully approach a school with careful strategy. He fished many species over the years, including lobster, crab, herring, mackerel and halibut. He fished cod off Newfoundland, tuna from Yarmouth to Newfoundland, and salmon with his father in the early days.
His innate desire to help others, be it rebuilding something, digging out from a storm, or hauling things in his truck, was as legendary along the shore as his desire to stay and chat. Paul was a talker who loved engaging in long bouts of chat with almost anyone he happened upon, friend or stranger. He managed to do things others thought impossible. He could build almost anything, usually not allowing timelines or organized tidiness to hamper the job. Intelligent and hard working, he was a perfectionist in carpentry. Paul’s meticulousness was universally known among his friends, whether building a house from century old timbers, a new bed for his daughter, or a new boat for his business. He once built a fishing boat in true Paul Boyle style, described as part Cape Islander, part Northumberland, and with a bit of Maine boat style thrown in. A complex mingling of styles only he could pull off. He was different. Close friends were surprised when the lifelong bachelor perfectionist decided at age 47 to suddenly marry. His bride, Jennifer Nunn, was the little blond two-year-old he recalled seeing on Bayfield beach when he was eleven and his father had stopped to talk to her father about the fishing season. Three decades later, Paul and Jennifer met again and were married. One wedding photo showed the happy couple standing next to his fishing boat at the time, under the boat’s name, "She’ll Do". Together, they embarked on an eventful voyage. They built boats, they built a Bayfield home, had two children, Sydney and Colin, bought a few more houses, enjoyed her family cottage on the bay, and adopted dogs; Wags and Tilley replaced Paul’s old constant companion, the red-haired Dooley.
Paul possessed a fierceness he employed at times; one well known to his buddies. To them, his rageful rants and expressive expletives were legend. When things didn’t work right, or someone slacked off on board, his killer instinct kicked in to sometimes hilarious results, to the outside observer. Like the time the radar on the boat refused to work and a crewmember saw the expensive device suddenly fly out of the cabin and overboard with a splash. When asked what happened, another crewmember quipped, "Technical difficulties." There are other stories of an uncooperative cellphone, and perhaps other pieces of high-tech equipment that ended up overboard when patience fell to passions on Paul’s boat. At sea or on land, his legendary lists of curses could burst forward in an almost Shakespearean and poetic expression of salty language.
A lifetime on the water, starting as a boy with his fisherman father, built Paul’s marine skills to a remarkable level. He was known to steer by the stars with only a compass and a watch, the time the electrical system failed, the boat went dark and yet he made it a long way back that night, to the wharf. When fishing off Newfoundland one time, on another boat, the vessel’s structure began to fail, gaps appeared between boards, leaks developed, and he ran three pumps to bail out the water while cruising top speed to try to make port. Knowing the boat would sink the moment he stopped at the wharf he ran it full aground on the gravel instead, only to patch it up the next day and return to Nova Scotia. His life was marked by strength and courage and skill. He worked well with tools and equipment and gear. He was a fisherman but also a hunter, good with a rifle. Yet he had a soft place in his heart for animals. He joined others to help a beached whale stay alive until it could get back out to sea, efforts that made it into the media. Paul and a friend took a small boat out in winter to rescue a small deer that went through the ice of the bay. He took it back to his barn to attempt to help the cold animal recover.
Paul loved his community of Bayfield. Many benefited from his help, everyone knew him. The Brophys, the Trenholms, the Hulberts and the Blairs were like his extended family. He was part of the fabric of the place all his life, even more so after he and Jennifer raised a family and continued to call Bayfield ‘home’. In his final weeks, weak from his illness, Paul managed to attend his son Colin’s high school graduation and then was dressed and on the wharf in the early mornings to help Colin and his long-time crewmember, Mike Spears, get launched—for another lobster fishing season on his boat.
Bon voyage, Paul.
Paul is survived by his wife, Jennifer Nunn; their daughter, Sydney and son, Colin, of Bayfield; and by his siblings, Arthur (Julie Wickstrom), Lower Sackville; Patsy (Allie Randall), Bayfield; Martin (Bernadette Watters), Bayfield; many nieces and nephews; and by his many Nunn family in-laws, their spouses, partners, and children.
He is predeceased by his parents, James and Helen Boyle; and his sister, Anne; and her husband Mike Boyle, formerly of Bayfield.
A special thanks to Dr. Maureen Allen and all the wonderful nurses and staff at the Palliative Care Unit at St. Martha’s Hospital.
Visitation will be held Monday, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9pm in C.L. Curry Funeral Home, 135 College Street, Antigonish. Funeral Mass will be held at St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Tracadie, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, at 11am, followed by a reception at the Bayfield Community Centre at the Bayfield wharf.
In memory of Paul, pour yourself a nice cup of tea.