Fishing communities face wrath of the Irish coast’s bad weather

FISHERMEN working the Irish coast face a deadly balancing act between making a living from the sea and battling some of the most treacherous weather conditions in northern Europe.

In the past 14 months alone, the south-east, one of the most hazardous areas of the coast, has been hit by two tragedies claiming the lives of five men. Last March, two lives were lost when the 15 metre Maggie B — a beam trawler — went down off the south-east coast.

Glen Cott and Jan Sankowski died, while a third crewman Krzysztof Pawtowski survived. They had been fishing together for a couple of months and this was their first exploratory trip on the vessel when they ran into difficulties.

Mr Pawtowski survived without a life jacket or survival suit in 6C temperatures by inflating the boat’s life raft and clinging to it.

The Rising Sun, an eight metre fishing boat, sank south of Hook Head in 2005. Skipper Pat Colfer, 37, of Slade, Co Wexford, died and his body has not been recovered. Crewman Jimmy Meyler, 46, who was rescued with colleague Ian Tierney, 27, died some hours after he was brought ashore.

That tragedy was compounded when a third man, experienced diver Billy O’Connor from New Ross, died as he searched for Mr Colfer’s body in about 50 metres of water. He lost his life while returning from the wreck of the boat.

The area also saw one of the worst sea tragedies of recent years when in July 2002 five lives were lost when sea angling boat Pisces got into difficulties with 10 people on board.

The lack of life jackets was a significant contributory factor to the drownings off Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford, and the boat’s skipper was prosecuted.

Tragedies at sea have also ripped apart communities in the west with the loss of four men on board the St Oliver off the Connemara coast.

The boat ran aground on the tiny uninhabited Duck Island in rough weather conditions late on September 17, 2004. It had been making the 40 kilometre trip from Leitir Ard to Ross A Mhil fishing port when the tragedy happened.

Despite a comprehensive investigation the incident is still shrouded in mystery.

And the fishing community in Co Down was devastated in 2002 when three generations of the Greene family, from Kilkeel, died when their fishing boat, the Tullaghmurry Lass, sank in calm waters on Valentine’s Day. It took two months to recover the bodies.

In the past two years, three other fishermen drowned in separate coastal incidents while fishing from small boats.