The searches for two Donegal fishermen and a man from west Cork man, all reported missing at sea this weekend, will resume this morning. Also at the weekend three people died in separate road accidents in Cork and Waterford.
Two men from the Rosbeg area of Co Donegal were last seen on a 36 ft boat, the Lisa Selena, on Saturday evening, en route from Killybegs to Rosbeg. Yesterday afternoon their sunken boat was found by local divers in Loughros More Bay, after an oil slick and ropes were spotted by an Air Corps helicopter. .
The skipper-owner, named locally as Mr Michael Jack Boyle, is believed to have stopped to haul crab pots. He had a young crewman with him, also named locally as Mr Thomas Moore. Weather conditions were good at the time.
In west Cork, a part-time shellfish fisherman, Mr Pat Courcy (25) from Whiddy Island, was lost as he and another man were returning from Bantry on a 12 ft motor boat shortly before midnight on Friday. They had just gone a few hundred yards from Bantry Pier when Mr Courcy fell overboard. His father, Sean, died in a similar boating accident in Bantry Bay in 1990.
In Cork, Rachel Hurley (2), from Rathcoole near Millstreet was killed on Saturday when the car in which she was travelling struck a pillar on the Mallow-Killarney Road near Kanturk. Her sister, Sarah (4), was in critical condition at Cork University Hospital yesterday.
Their aunt, Ms Mary Crowley, who was driving the car, and her son, Darragh (4), were both in a comfortable condition.
Later on Saturday another Rathcoole resident, Ms Nellie O'Riordan (47), was fatally injured in a two-car collision at Drishane on the outskirts of Millstreet, Co Cork. Her son Christopher (10), who was also injured in the crash, was yesterday described as comfortable.
In Co Waterford, Ms Veronica O'Leary (42), from Shamrock Lawn, Douglas, Cork, died in hospital on Saturday following a road traffic accident at Davidstown.