Family and friends of the fishermen lost at sea off the southeast coast earlier this year attended the launch of a new book about the tragedy in Waterford last night.
Souls of the Sea, written by RTÉ southeast correspondent Damien Tiernan, is an account of the dramatic events last January when, over a six-day period, three fishing boats sank with the loss of seven men. Four men survived the catastrophe.
The Pere Charles sank off Hook Head on January 10th with the loss of five men: Tom Hennessy (32); his uncle, Pat Hennessy (48); Billy O'Connor (50); Pat Coady (27) and Ukrainian national Andriy Dyrin (32).
Some hours later, the Honeydew II sank 20 miles further west off Mine Head. Two Lithuanian crew members escaped in a life raft and survived but skipper Ger Bohan (39) and Polish crewman Tomasz Jagla (32) were lost.
A week later, a third fishing boat sank off Tuskar Rock, Co Wexford, but its two-man crew was rescued.
Despite extensive searches, including a number of dives by the Naval Service and an exhaustive combing of the seashore by hundreds of volunteers, none of the bodies of the seven fishermen was ever found.
Tiernan said he had "interviewed members of the emergency services, survivors and families and friends of the deceased to piece together what happened during those fateful days". The fact that the bodies had never been found added a "terrible sadness" to the tragedy.
He described Souls of the Sea, published by Hodder Headline Ireland, as "a memorial to the men who were lost".