High winds delay raising of the vessel

Bad weather early this morning delayed the operation to raise the Père Charles which went down off Hook Head, Co Wexford claiming…

Bad weather early this morning delayed the operation to raise the Père Charleswhich went down off Hook Head, Co Wexford claiming five lives last January.

Work overnight prepared the trawler for being raised to the surface after the upside down vessel was moved off the seabed and righted yesterday.

It is expected to be brought to the surface today after salvage experts worked through the night.

The Irish Coast Guard said the Père Charleswould be brought to shallower waters today to allow for a preliminary inspection by Garda divers before being brought to the surface later.

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A spokesman for the Coast Guard said divers have now returned to the site and are continuing the operation to raise the vessel.

The bodies of the five-man crew - skipper Tom Hennessy (32), his uncle Pat Hennessy (48), Billy O'Connor (50), Pat Coady (27), and Andriy Dyrin (32) from the Ukraine - were not recovered after the trawler went down two miles from Dunmore East, Co Waterford.

Divers at the scene of the wreck 35 metres under water had to be called ashore at 3.15am this morning when the conditions deteriorated.

Ger Hegarty, Irish Coast Guard co-ordinator in Dunmore East, said: "It was unsafe for the divers, we had to call them ashore. But the barge remains on scene over the wreck."

The victims' families are hoping the salvage operation will locate their remains and finally reveal why the boat sunk.

"It's just been a really though year on a lot of people and we are just hoping that this will bring us some closure," said Lulu Doyle, who was due to marry Tom Hennessy this year. "We're hoping the lads are still on the boat."

She told RTÉ that watching the barge going out to sea to lift the boat broke her heart. "I hope they are all out there and they will all be able to be buried properly.

"Even of there's nobody on the Père Charlesat least we know we have done everything and there's nothing more we can do."