Heroic duo save sinking trawlermen

A FATHER and son risked their own lives to rescue two fishermen from their sinking trawler.
A report in the Irish Independent describes how Sean and Donal Flanagan – who were fishing near Port Oriel, in the east of the country – became aware of the sinking trawler and immediately alerted the rescue services.
The pair then sailed to the incident – Sean is a volunteer with the RNLI – and managed to pull the fishermen from the sea.
Sean and his son managed to pull the men from the water and into the safety of their own vessel and waited for the Clogher Head RNLI life boat to arrive.
RNLI Coxswain, Tomas Whelan, and four crew members made their way to the scene, where they transferred the fishermen from the Flanagan’s vessel to theirs.
‘We have to commend the swift actions of our lifeboat crew member Sean Flanagan’, said Whelan, ‘who not only made the Mayday call for the emergency services but then rapidly went to the scene and rescued the two men from the sea.’