Search continues for eight fishermen

The search continued until dark last night for the bodies of eight fishermen, including one Irishman, who are believed to have drowned when their trawler sank off the Clare coast two days ago.

The three surviving crew members of the 38-metre An-Orient, including the skipper, Mr Xavier Leaute, were released from Merlin Park Hospital in Galway yesterday and arrangements were being made to fly them home to Lorient in France and Aveiro in Portugal.

Six of the eight who died were French, one was Portuguese, and the Irishman has been named as Mr Tomas Kelly, of Fenit, Co Kerry.

Mr Kelly, who was married with four children, was an experienced and respected member of the south-west fishing community and a former vessel owner who had joined the French trawler in Fenit last week. Father Gearoid O Donnchadha, secretary of the Fenit lifeboat station, told The Irish Times Mr Kelly had served as a lifeboat volunteer and had been involved in delivering a Trent-class offshore vessel to the station from RNLI headquarters in 1994.

The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Fahey, paid tribute to the Irish Coastguard helicopter for its actions in saving the three crewmen in 50-knot winds and 20-foot waves.

The skipper, Mr Leaute, said there was no time to launch liferafts or put on survival equipment, and the alert was raised by the vessel's emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) which activated on contact with water.

The Sikorsky resumed the search some 80 miles west of Loop Head yesterday, along with a French fixed-wing maritime surveillance aircraft and several French vessels in the area.