Lake search for missing kayaker enters fourth day
Neilus O’Connor, 38, from Cromane in Co Kerry, was reported missing by his partner Melissa after he failed to return home after setting out kayaking on White Sands Lake at around 3am on Friday.
A massive search operation was put into action almost immediately, with Shannon Coast Guard helicopter dispatched to the scene to search for the missing man.
The helicopter was aided by the Knightstown Coast Guard and the Ballinskelligs inshore rescue team.
Killorglin gardaí are co-ordinating the search and are being assisted by the Valentia Coast Guard.
Mr O’Connor’s kayak and paddle were recovered washed up on the eastern shore of the lake at around 11am on Friday.
Mr O’Connor is father to a two-month-old girl, Hannah, and is originally from Tralee but had moved to Cromane, near Killorglin, with his partner.
Yesterday, friends and relatives were assisting in the search. His father Fred O’Connor, uncle Michael O’Connor and aunt Ann Ryle were also present on the shoreline, anxiously awaiting news as the search continued.
Meanwhile, an air and sea search and rescue mission was launched in the Irish Sea after a fisherman fell overboard from a trawler.
The man is believed to be a foreign national and in his 30s. He was reported missing from the Zenith fishing boat about 15km from Clogherhead in Co Louth.
The alarm was raised at 1.05pm yesterday by the Irish Coast Guard after the vessel’s skipper made an emergency call.
The local RLNI crew, a second lifeboat relief crew and a rescue helicopter joined the search, along with fishing vessels.
And on the Galway coast, the body of a Cork student who had been missing for almost three weeks was recovered from the sea yesterday afternoon.
Tony Crowley, 19, from Effin, near Charleville, was seen entering the water in Galway City on the night of his disappearance.
Mr Crowley was a first-year computer and engineering student at the University of Limerick and had been on a night out with friends in the city.
Extensive river and sea searches were made and his remains were located yesterday on the coast at Tawin, near Oranmore.
Dozens of people, along with Mallow Search and Rescue, had travelled from north Cork to Galway to take part in the search.
