Ten years on communities are still yearning for loved ones lost to the sea

Ten years ago this month, two boats sank off the south-east coast. Conor Kane and Stephen Rogers recall the tragedies that resulted in the loss of seven lives and united communities in grief.

Louise Doyle, partner of Pere Charles skipper Tom Hennessy, pictured in 2007 holding a photograph of the late fisherman.

We are an island nation and fishing is in the blood of so many of the men and women around our long, rocky, wind-battered, sometimes treacherous coast.

Too often treacherous, when the families of those men and women are touched by tragedy, the vessels carrying their loved ones don’t come home.