Family mourns second member lost to sea

The family of a Northern Ireland fisherman missing for 11 months were today mourning another tragic loss when his father died after being swept into the sea.

Paul Bogues was walking along a harbour wall in the fishing village of Ardglass, Co Down, at around 9pm last night when a wave pulled him into the Irish sea.

Two fisherman held on to Mr Bogues as the wind buffeted the sea and they waited for the emergency services to arrive.

He was pronounced dead after being recovered from the sea on his arrival at hospital in Downpatrick.

The body of his 26-year-old son Conor from Ballynahinch has not been recovered since the fishing vessel he was working onboard, the Greenhill, sank off Ardglass in January.

Mr Paul Bogues had been living in Fitzroy Avenue in Belfast.

The Coastguard was alerted to the incident at around 9.00pm last night.

But the loss of Connor Bogues father will hit the fishing village of Ardglass hard as it still tried to come to terms with the fishing vessel tragedy in January.

A report in August by the Department of Transport found the Greenhill’s skipper Conrad Zych, who survived the tragedy, had left the wheelhouse of the boat to go on deck when it hit rocks.

Donal Gibson, aged 22, from Downpatrick also died in the sinking of the Greenhill and his body was recovered.

However the Bogues family have had an agonising year as local fishermen, lifeboat crews and polic underwater search teams have conducted a number of searches to try to recover the body in vain.

Northern Ireland was last night hit by strong gale-force winds which caused flooding on roads and minor electricity power cuts.

Ferry services between Belfast and Stranraer in Scotland was suspended today because of the adverse conditions.

Alex Slater of the Fishermen's Mission said the community shared the Bogues family's devastation at the latest tragedy.

“I spoke to the family last night when I heard the reports,” he said.

“The people of Ardglass are just devastated by this.

“It is so terrible this time of the year coming up to Christmas that there should be this tragedy.

“I spoke to Paul regularly on the phone – the last time was about a week to 10 days ago.

“He was a lovely man, a real gentleman. He wanted to help other seamen who had been struck by tragedy.

“He liked to go down to Ardglass following Conor’s disappearance just to be there.

“It is important that we urge people not to go at this time of year near harbours, rocks or beaches because the weather conditions are so so dangerous.”