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.