Fund to aid search for Jonathan

A SPECIAL bank account was opened yesterday to help expand the search for Jonathan Herlihy as his parents wait for the sea to give up their son’s body.

As Liam and Eileen Herlihy faced into the seventh day of their painful vigil above Owenahincha beach in west Cork, money began to pour in to help maintain and expand the expensive recovery operation.

The 22-year-old student from Glanmire, Co Cork, was swept out to sea last Sunday with Peter O’Keeffe after they saved two swimmers in difficulty. Peter’s body was recovered from the sea on Tuesday and was buried yesterday.

Money donated to the Jonathan Herlihy Fund will pay for trawler and jet-ski fuel. Dozens of canoes, kayaks, pleasure craft and boats, including three trawlers from Union Hall, have been searching Rosscarbery Bay.

More trawlers with radar and VHF radio are needed.

The fund will fund crew who need payment and buy equipment for the hundreds of volunteers scouring cliff-tops, caves and shoreline along a 20-mile stretch between Toe Head and the Old Head of Kinsale. More volunteers are still needed.

UCC said last night that all graduation classes on Monday will observe a minute’s silence for Jonathan, who was due to graduate on Monday with a degree in finance.