Witnesses describe drowning fishermen’s last moments

Witnesses at the inquest into the deaths of two men on a fishing trip in 2010 have described how they saw one of the men struggling in the water and then disappearing underneath, just seconds before a nearby fisherman reached him.

An open verdict was returned by a jury following the inquest yesterday into the drowning of John O’Brien, aged 35, from Fourmilewater, Co Waterford, and Patrick Esmonde, aged 36, from Cahir, Co Tipperary, who went fishing in a dinghy off Helvic Head in Co Waterford early in the afternoon of Sunday, May 23, 2010, but died soon after 5pm that evening.

Two whale-watchers, Andrew Malcolm and his wife Anne Trimble, were on a cliff overlooking the scene of the tragedy.

Mr Malcolm told the inquest in Dungarvan he heard a man shouting and saw someone in the sea, about 10m from a boat.

“He had his arms raised in the air,” said Mr Malcolm. “I knew he was in trouble.”

They saw the boat of local fisherman William Kett heading towards where the man was struggling. “He got to the man no more than 20 seconds after the man went down [under the water],” Mr Malcolm said in a deposition. “I could see him under the water for a second, before he slipped from view.”

Ms Trimble said she heard a man shouting and, a few seconds after seeing him in the water, knew that he was in difficulty. “I saw his head was no longer visible and saw him going under the water,” she said.

In his evidence, Mr Kett said he was fishing and saw the men’s grey rigid inflatable boat (RIB) and, at about 5.15pm, saw a man struggling near the little boat. “I saw the man in the water’s two arms slip into the water,” he said. “There was no sign of the other man. The engine of the RIB was turned off.”

Anthony Palmer, the owner of another fishing boat, the Mary O, said he saw two men swimming in the water near the RIB.

It sounded like they were having “fun”, he said, and he moved away from the area and only realised after some time that there was a search and then joined in the operation. He hadn’t heard any “cry for help” he said, but heard one of the two men saying “yee-haw,” before he restarted his own engine and moved away.

Asked by Cian O’Carroll, solicitor for the victims’ families, whether he was “surprised” to discover later that the two men were non-swimmers, Mr Palmer said he was “devastated” and had no idea they were in trouble. “If I had heard a shout for help, I would have been over there,” said Mr Palmer.

Their bodies were recovered about 300m from the shore.

The solicitor for the families of M O’Brien and Mr Esmonde said after yesterday’s inquest that the relatives welcomed the outcome of the inquest.