Naval Service to join search for two fishermen missing since Friday

THE IRISH Naval Service will join the search for two missing fishermen off the coast of Dublin this morning, joining the RNLI, the Civil Defence, the Coast Guard and hundreds of local fishermen, friends and family as the search enters its fourth day.

Ronan Browne (26) and David Gilsenan (41) were last seen on Friday at about noon as they left Skerries harbour in Mr Browne's 17-foot open-top fishing vessel, Lady Linda. They were going to check on lobster pots just east of St Patrick's Island.

The alarm was raised at about 6pm that evening when they failed to return.

The upturned vessel was found at 11am on Saturday off Clogherhead, near the river Boyne in Co Louth, and it is understood other items belonging to the men have also been found.

Families of the two men have been gathered in the Skerries RNLI building on the town pier since Friday evening.

Both men were married. Mr Gilsenan is understood to have two children, aged six and nine, while Mr Browne married last September. His boat was named after his wife, Linda. Both were experienced seamen, according to locals.

During the course of yesterday, friends and family arrived and left the pier, including a brother of Mr Gilsenan who arrived from England with children.

Pat Flynn, a friend of the Gilsenan family, described Mr Gilsenan as “just the nicest bloke you could hope to meet”.

“The families just want closure on this now. They want to find something. To sit here day after day and do nothing, it’s killing them. They are just so upset. They just keep crying.”

John Draper, incident manager for the Irish Coast Guard, said the organisation would conduct a 21-day search.

“This is a very intense search. Skerries lifeboat have seven units out and the Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 has been conducting an aerial search.

“Garda divers have been searching and the Air Corps has been patrolling the coast. Vessels are out from the Drogheda Coast Guard, Howth Coast Guard, Drogheda Coast Guard. A massive effort is being put into this.”

Comdt Neil Nolan, spokesman for the Defence Force, confirmed the Naval Service would join the search this morning.

“A team of eight divers will be bringing a specialist rigid inflatable boat, with low sides and a flat bottom, used specifically in searches such as these, to assist in the sub-surface operation. They will be leaving Haulbowline Island in Cork at first light, travelling by road, and should be on-scene by mid-morning.”

A spokeswoman for the RNLI said local fishermen “as well as boats from all over Fingal and Skerries have taken up position for grid-search of the sea from Greenore, near Carlingford, to Ireland’s Eye” yesterday.

She said there was also an “organised coastline search” involving land-based units of the Civil Defence and the Coast Guard.

Sgt Liam Grimes, who was co-ordinating the Garda underwater unit. said divers had been searching around the St Patrick’s Island area.

“We have been saturating that area where it is thought they last were. A team of nine divers has been out and they would go underwater for about 70 to 80 minutes each. Visibility has been very poor to be honest, today and yesterday.”

Bill Powderly, assistant Civil Defence officer, Dublin, co-ordinating the Civil Defence search, said his volunteers had been out from 7am yesterday, returning to shores at about 1.30pm.

“They have been out north of Clogherhead and back. They are just going slowly through the water, looking and searching for anything – persons or debris, looking with the naked eye. It’s as simple as that.

“It is tiring, draining work and frustrating when you don’t find anything. But this is what they are trained for.”