Relatives fear facing Christmas alone

HELEN Boyle does not know if she will see her husband, an engineer on board the Irish ship Ulysses, this side of Christmas.

Ms Boyle last saw her husband almost a week ago when he left their Cork home for Dublin where he boarded the ship for what he then thought was just another week at sea.

Now she is facing up to the possibility of spending Christmas alone because officers are refusing to sail the vessel from Holyhead.