Divers flock to offer help in search for crewmen’s bodies

Divers from all over the country are volunteering to help the devastated wife of a missing skipper find his body.

However, gardaí have clamped down on access to Union Hall in West Cork after freeloaders were caught abusing the generosity of the feeding stations on the pier.

Access will be restricted to those directly involved with the massive search operation in and around Glandore Harbour.

Up to 70 divers have volunteered to help after Caitlín Uí Aodha’s appeal for help to bring her husband’s body home.

She called for experienced divers to join the search for the bodies of Michael Hayes and his crewman Saied Aly Eldin, who have been lost at sea since Mr Hayes’s trawler, the Tit Bonhomme, sank with six on board in Glandore Harbour in West Cork on Jan 15.

Three bodies have been recovered during an intensive search over the last 13 days.

Despite these efforts, the bodies of Mr Hayes and Mr Aly Eldin have not been found.

“We really, really need to try and get closure and I feel confident we can do it,” said Ms Uí Aodha.

The response was overwhelming, Coast Guard officers said.

Today’s dive operation near Adam Island at the mouth of Glandore Harbour is now poised to be one of the largest and most complex such searches ever mounted in Ireland.

Local dive experts, including John Kearney and Aodh O’Donnell, were finalising a plan last night for the inch-by-inch search of the seabed.

“It’s a very big area and that’s why we need so many experienced divers to cover it correctly,” said Mr Kearney.

Naval service and Garda divers will dive in the exclusion zone around the wreck to re-examine it.

The weather forecast is for north-westerly force 4 to 5 winds. The water temperature is about 10C.

Dives will begin at 8am and finish at 5pm.

The youngest victim of the trawler tragedy, Kevin Kershaw, was laid to rest in Dublin on Thursday.

Egyptian Attia Shaban was buried at 10pm on Wednesday in his native Borgmhgizl — a little fishing village on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Friends said they expected Wael Mohamad, 35, to be buried this evening.