Lough Ree: One man dies as search for another resumes
A man from Northern Ireland has died after being rescued from a lake in the Republic of Ireland.
Another NI man is critically ill after being rescued from Lough Ree on Thursday afternoon.
A search has resumed for a third NI man who is still missing after their boat sank while on a fishing trip in County Westmeath.
The men, from a County Armagh angling club, had been planning to camp on an island when they got into difficulties.
One of the men is from Portadown and has several young children.
The Ulster Unionist deputy mayor of Craigavon, Colin McCusker is a relative of the man who died.
He said the family circle had been left "absolutely devastated" by the news.
"I found out last night at half ten that this had happened," he said.
"I got another text message at half four this morning and then just at nine o'clock this morning I found out that one of the young men who had just died is a relative of mine.
'Support'
"Words can't describe how we're all feeling at the minute, there are young children involved who are going to be left without a father and we're just devastated."
Mr McCusker said the family's focus was now on providing practical support.
"Just this morning, I've arranged to try and get transport to bring up the vehicles belonging to the young men. All it is is them just knowing that we're there to help them, be at the end of a phone and give them whatever support we can," he said.
The search operation for the missing man, led by the Irish coastguard, was stood down on Thursday night.
Damien Delaney, RNLI operations manager at Lough Ree said the search resumed between 07:30 and 08:00 GMT on Friday.
Emergency services at the scene at Lough Ree in County Westmeath
"We'll go back to the search area again, where we left off yesterday evening, start again at View Point, we'll be assisted by people from Athlone Sub Aqua and Lanesborough Sub Aqua and some local anglers," he said.
"There was a lot of debris in the water, fishing stuff and containers floating.
"There was quite a long trail of debris leading right across the lake for a distance of about two miles, so we'll be following that trail area today.
'Hope'
The men left Hudson Bay harbour on Thursday afternoon
"We'll be following that trail area today."
Mr Delaney said the search teams were holding onto hope that the missing man had made it ashore.
"We'll be concentrating on the shore area as well. We're reluctant to speculate, we just live in hope that he's alive somewhere,"
Emergency services were called out at 15:20 GMT on Thursday.
An RNLI lifeboat recovered the first man, semi-conscious in the water, at about 16:00 GMT. The second man was found at about 17:15 GMT.
The first man found is said to be about 30, the second man in his 50s. The missing man is also believed to be in his 50s.
Conditions on the lake were described as gusty at the time of the incident.
Richie O'Hara from the nearby Bay Sports Centre said the alarm was raised by other anglers the men were due to meet.
"Two of the party called into our centre and they were quite concerned about three of their party who they had arranged to meet further up the lake," he said.
"When they hadn't arrived as planned, those two gentleman who called in came back down the lake looking for them."
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