‘He was a family man first and a fisherman second’

“HE WAS a family man first and a fisherman second; he loved his family.”

That is how Ger Bohan’s friend of 25 years, Eamon O’Neill, described him as he and hundreds of other searchers desperately hunted for a sign of the captain of the Honeydew II and his crew mate Tomasz Jagla.

While Eamon searched, Mr Bohan’s wife Mary would occasionally leave the family home and go to the harbour in Kinsale to look out to sea. It was Mary who raised the alarm on Thursday.

She would frequently ring Ger when he was out at sea, to see how he was getting on.

Yesterday, she said it would take six months to adequately describe her husband. “I just want to get him home,” she said. She added that if there was any way the experienced seamen could have got off the boat safely, he would have.

Mary and her four children Anthony, 18, Sally Jean, 11, James, nine, and Joseph, six, were being comforted by Ger’s father Sean. He said: “Ger’s love of the sea began when he was eight, when he won his first angling competition. He spent every available minute he had as a young child converting milk crates into lobster pots.”

It emerged yesterday that Ger had only recently been in Paris, where his brother Jim lives, looking at a new boat.

Meanwhile, Tomasz Jagla’s wife and son arrived at the harbour early yesterday morning.

They spent several hours in the harbour office, and, with the help of an interpreter, received updates from the Kinsale RNLI and Kinsale Harbour Master, Phil Devitt, on how the search was going. Her seven-year-old daughter had stayed at home with other family friends.

Reverend David Williams, who spent some time with the family, said they were deeply upset but the bravery of Tomasz’s 12-year-old son was remarkable.

Harbour Master Phil Devitt said that while they had only been in Kinsale for a couple of years they had integrated into the community, with the two children going to the local school.

A prayer service at St John’s Church in Kinsale last night saw a packed congregation including locals, family and gardaí.

They watched as Anita Jagla, wife of missing Tomasz Jagla, joined Mary Bohan, wife of missing Honeydew II skipper Ger Bohan, in lighting candles.

Mrs Bohan has kept in regular contact with Mrs Jagla since the tragedy unfolded and has offered the Polish woman comfort.

During the service, Parish Priest Canon John O’Mahoney offered prayers for both families as well as the relatives of the missing men from the Pere Charles.

He told the congregation that Mass would be said today, at 11am, in both English and Polish.

After the 45-minute prayer service, members of the congregation queued for almost 30 minutes to speak to both wives and offer them support.