The incident involving a father, son and daughter from one family and the son’s girlfriend occurred in Baltimore, Co. Cork yesterday evening shortly before 7pm.
Barry Ryan, his 21-year-old son Barry Davis Ryan and Niamh O’Connor (20) were swept out to sea by a freak wave.
While details of the incident are still emerging it is thought that Ms O'Connor was swept out to sea with the two men attempting to save her. Mr Ryan’s teenage daughter apparently scrambled to safety before raising the alarm.
A rescue operation was immediately launched and Ryan Snr and Niamh were recovered from the sea not long after. Both were airlifted to Cork University Hospital but were sadly pronounced dead a short time later. The search for Barry Jnr continues this morning after operations were scaled back last night due to fog.
Talking to the Irish Independent, John Carney from Baltimore Lifeboat said: "Unfortunately we had no joy in the search this evening. We were about 20m down on the seabed, and conditions were quite tricky. We had four divers in the water not far from the coast with two on standby in the boat. We will be joined by the Navy Diving Unit in the morning where hopefully we will have a better outcome."
Independent councillor Michael Collins said the community was "numb and in shock", saying: "To think that you could go out for a walk with your family and for such a horrible thing to happen is mind-boggling."
Our thoughts are with the family at this truly awful time.
