A new book written by RTE’s South East correspondent, Damien Tiernan, will be launched in The Granville Hotel this Thursday night by his newsroom colleague, Charlie Bird. Entitled ‘Souls of the Sea’, the book tells how, on January 10th. of this year, two fishing boats sank off the South East coast with the loss of seven lives.
In a breathtaking and heartbreaking account of a double tragedy that shocked the nation, Damien tells how five died together on the ‘Pere Charles’ which sank two and half miles off Dunmore East. A few hours later, two more men were lost when the ‘Honey Dew II’ sank 21 miles away off Minehead. Against all the odds, two survived.
The book also recounts how, six days later, another vessel, ‘Renegage’ sank ten miles off the Tusker Rock and how the two-man crew was rescued from a life raft.
In his book, published by Hodder Headline Ireland, Damien talks to survivors and the loved ones of the deceased to piece together what happened on those fateful days. He writes of the devastation left behind and also reveals many facts not disclosed at the time of the tragedies.
Two weeks passed before divers could access the ‘Pere Charles’ but the bodies of none of the crew were found in the boat. The catch of up to 50 tons of herring was also gone. No bodies were found either in the ‘Honey Dew II’ when divers searched the wreck.
A spokesperson for the publishers said this week that Damien Tiernan’s
extraordinary book was, in effect, a love story filled with heartache and loss. It was also a story of courage, strength and the resilience of the fishing community.
