Bodies of three men recovered from Kerry harbour

Shortly after 6pm, a member of the public saw a man floating in the water and an overturned boat just off the eastern end of Coonana pier, a sheltered and scenic harbour 5km north of Caherciveen.

The emergency services were alerted and an operation, co-ordinated by the nearby Valentia Coastguard saw Shannon Rescue 115, the Coastguard Sikorsky helicopter, with the assistance of the Valentia RNLI lifeboat and the local Iveragh coastguard, recover the bodies of three men.

According to gardaí, two of the men were under the boat.

All there were recovered in less than an hour.

It is understood the men were Eastern European and lived in the area. One was in his 50s and the other two in their 30s.

They are believed to have gone out fishing earlier in the day in what the coastguard described as a 15ft punt, an open boat.

Winds were north-north westerly, force three to four. However, the men appeared to have stuck close to the shore, and the upturned boat was in the sheltered end of the harbour.

All three bodies were taken to the morgue at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee where autopsies will be carried out today.

Gardaí are investigating, but the deaths are being treated as tragic accidents.

There is some speculation locally that one man may have fallen in and the other two had tried to rescue him. It appears they had been wearing heavy clothing.

It is believed the men drowned some time before the boat was spotted.

The tragedy recalls a similar drowning of a semi-retired couple fishing on a clear day just off Connana harbour 21 years ago.

On October 23, 1997, Paddy O’Donoghue, a native of Caherciveen who was in his 70s, and his wife, Kay, a British national also in her 70s, had gone to haul in mackerel nets in their 16ft boat for their weekly fishing stall business when tragedy struck and they both drowned.

That day was clear, calm, and warm.