AN INQUEST heard yesterday how two men who went out to collect lobster pots from Skerries, Co Dublin, died together and were found entangled in fishing gear off Clogherhead, Co Louth.
After the inquest, the families of Ronan Browne (26) and David Gilsenan (41) expressed their “thanks to everybody who was involved at the time”. They said: “The support the families got was unbelievable.”
The bodies of the men were recovered in the Irish sea off Clogherhead after a prawn trawler came upon them more than a week later. Coroner Ronan Maguire said that while it was not known at this stage what happened, an investigation by the Marine Casualty Investigations Board is expected to issue its findings shortly. He recorded verdicts of accidental death. The coroner said the men were friends “that sailed together, were found together and were pronounced dead together”.
“It was an appalling tragedy that gripped the country, their colleagues searched a long time for them. I express my sympathies to their families.”
Drogheda Coroner’s Court heard that, on the morning of April 1st last, Mr Gilsenan had shared a “cup of tea and banter” with his friend Kevin Philips who was working at Skerries harbour.
Mr Philips told the gardaí that Mr Gilsenan was his “best friend”. He told him he was going out to help Mr Browne with his lobster pots and when he returned would help him [Mr Philips]. When Mr Philips saw that both men’s vans were still at the harbour at about 5.15pm, he raised the alarm with the RNLI station master and the lifeboat was launched.
The inquest also heard from Kevin Lawless that he had helped to restore the boat the men went out on, the Lady Linda. Mr Lawless positively identified the boat to gardaí when it was found floating upturned in the sea off Clogherhead on April 2nd.
The bodies of the men were recovered on April 9th, 5.2 miles off the Clogherhead coast by a fishing trawler. Joe Clarke, the skipper of the Gliding Light, which sails out of Kilkeel in Co Down, said he and the crew were trawling for prawns at 1.15am when he saw oilskins in the nets and “I knew it was a body.” He stopped the boat and alerted the Coast Guard.
The coxswain of the Clogherhead lifeboat, Barry Faulkner, said he recognised the body as that of Mr Gilsenan. Those in the lifeboat were able to see a second body lower in the water. He told gardaí the bodies were “entangled together” with potting rope.
The lifeboat and crew took both bodies back to Clogherhead, where they were formally pronounced dead. Richard Browne formally identified his son from The Cliffs, Skerries, and told gardaí the Lady Linda had been fully equipped with life jackets. Peter Halpin, brother-in-law of Mr Gilsenan from Woodland Park, Rush, formally identified his body.
Pathologist Dr John Ryan said both men had drowned and hypothermia had been a significant contributing factor for Mr Gilsenan.