‘Tom doesn’t want to be left at sea’

IF THE Pere Charles had returned safely to harbour in Dunmore East on that fateful night it sank, its skipper Tom Hennessy would be married to his fiancée Louise Doyle.

Engaged for seven years, he had just bought Ms Doyle an engagement ring and they had started to make plans for a summer wedding. They met in 1999, when Kerryman Tom arrived in Dunmore for a short fishing trip, but met Ms Doyle and ended up staying.

“We used to go back to Kerry two or three times a year,” she recalled yesterday.