An unspeakable tragedy: Inquest describes death of three brothers

An inquest into the death of three brothers who drowned when their fishing boat sank off the Waterford coast in June 2013 has described it as "an unspeakable tragedy" for their extended family.

The inquiry also heard that the emergency signalling device aboard the Dean Leanne failed to go off.

The devices are meant to send a beacon to emergency services when they come into contact with water.

Brothers Paul, Kenny and Shane Bolger were natives of Passage East in County Waterford.

Their brother Michael has said they want to make sure these devices are checked to ensure this does not happen again.

“What we’re trying to get done now is to get the marine authorities to periodically check to make sure that they do work,” he said.

“There is a self-test on them but that will only tell you that the battery is working, it won’t tell you that it is going to go off when it should do.”