Thursday, July 23, 2009

Washed out to sea at Aran Islands

This news was reported by BBC yesterday:
Man says wave washed away son

The father of a Londonderry man who drowned off the Aran Islands said he believed his son was washed out to sea by a freak wave.

Joe Brown, 42, was last seen alive on Inisheer on Saturday 11 July. He and his wife Denise were on holiday.

"It was choppy that night and the waves around the island can be dangerous," said Pat Brown.

"The rescue people said he'd been caught in a wave and that took him straight out to sea."

The body of Joe Brown was found on Thursday 16 July by a fisherman in Galway Bay. He was buried on Monday.

"Joe said to Denise he was going for a dander along the seafront while she went back to the hotel for tea. When he hadn't returned by eleven-thirty she thought he had just met up with someone and had gone back to the bar," he added.

"Come the morning at 10 o'clock she phoned the two guys he was most likely to be with and they hadn't seen Joe since the night before.

"Then the panic set it, the Garda had been contacted and the air and sea rescue people came out. They searched all along Inisheer and they carried on the search up until Tuesday afternoon at three o'clock and that particular team had to leave to go and search for the Polish man and his son lost off Kenmare."

This is a rather frightening story. As BBC shown the following picture of the water front presumably where young Mr. Brown was washed out to sea.


How can a place like this be dangerous? Who wouldn't wish to take a stroll along the sea front in the morning or any time? But since the young Brown was lost to sea, the elder Brown's conjecture of washed out by a freaque wave is probably very plausible. Most likely the young Brown was attracted by the waves and gotten a little too close to sea. It's really an unexpected tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go to the Brown family. An advice of be very careful on the sea front and try not to go near the sea would be superfluous but a necessary warning nevertheless.

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