A father and son died tonight when their fishing boat was struck by heavy seas off the Donegal coast.
The pair were thrown from the small boat in heavy seas in Donegal Bay - the second fishing tragedy to hit the west of Ireland in the past 24 hours. It is understood the two men who died are from Inver Port, Co Donegal. The man who died was believed to be in his 40s and his son was 19 years old.
The coastguard plucked the pair from the sea after an hour and they were flown to Sligo General Hospital, but they died later, a spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive said.
The Irish Coast Guard said a search and rescue operation was launched for the father and son off Donegal at around 12.30pm when a passer-by saw a flare being set off.
Officers in Malin Head dispatched the helicopter from Sligo and contacted lifeboat crews in Killybegs and Bundoran but they could not launch due to the weather.
"The weather was too poor for those two crews to launch, the winds were up to gale force," a Coast Guard spokesman said.
The helicopter was on the scene within a half an hour and had found the men and winched them on board by 1.30pm.
Both were suffering from severe hypothermia.
They had left Killibegs harbour in a 20ft open deck lobster boat to check on pots in the bay.
The Coast Guard spokesman said conditions at sea were difficult.
"The winds were up to gale force west to north-west and were gusting up to force six and seven," he said. There were also fairly high seas and a moderate swell."
The deaths followed two drownings at Ross an Mhil harbour, Co Galway when a car went in off the pier last night.
Two fishermen, from Latvia and Lithuania and both aged in their 30s, were trapped in the car and died but a third man had a miraculous escape through the car's sunroof.
Gardaí are investigating.
PA