More than 100,000 visitors are expected to attend the country's largest free maritime festival which gets underway in Cork today.

Renewed sonar searches and trawling has begun around the crash site of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter that went down in the Atlantic.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) has called on Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe to make the wearing of safety harnesses mandatory for trawler fishermen.

Marine rescue services have asked the Department of Transport for “clarity” over the prevalence of a safety device found to be defective on a boat which capsized, killing three brothers.

AN IRISH trawler has been rammed by a Spanish fishing vessel amid growing tensions between Irish, French and Spanish fishermen.