A HUSH fell over the assembled crowd as the mother and the wife of two of the fishermen who died off the Cork coast embraced.
Aziaza Aly Eldin, the mother of Egyptian fisherman Said Aly Eldin, who died after the sinking of the Tit Bonhomme last month, and Caitlín Hayes, the wife of skipper Michael Hayes, attended an Islamic prayer service held in Mr Aly Eldin’s memory in Dublin yesterday.
Other members of the Hayes family also offered their condolences to Mr Aly Eldin’s mother, his father Mohamed, sister Amel and brother Adam. Two younger siblings, sister Farah and brother Ali, were not present and were being looked after in west Cork.
All five of Mr Hayes’s children were in attendance, as was his brother, Chief Supt Tom Hayes, and their four other siblings. Mr Hayes’s funeral took place 10 days ago in Co Waterford.
As the families spoke, a bell from the inner sanctum of the mosque in the Islamic Cultural Centre on Clonskeagh Road marked the beginning of evening prayers, which the family and others who travelled from Cork were invited to attend.
Afterwards prayers were said over the body and representatives from the Cork community presented two photographs, one of the Tit Bonhommeand one of Glandore Bay, to the imam of the mosque, Sheikh Hussein Halawa.
The body of Mr Aly Eldin, who died when the trawler sank in Glandore Bay last month, was recovered on Friday after a 27-day search.