‘You couldn’t ask for a better brother’

GRIEF hung heavy in the cold sea air as ferries bore mourners to the island.

They huddled in silence on board the heaving rain and hail-lashed decks as they left Castletownbere pier to make the short crossing to Bere Island, just off the Cork coast, to bury one of their own.

Like all fishing communities, they are resigned to losing loved ones to the sea, to experience tragedy, to be familiar with its aching routine.