BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
Two boating friends drowned in Lower Lough Erne last Saturday when the newly-acquired, 16' fishing boat belonging to one of them overturned just off Devenish Island, throwing both of them into the water.
It is thought that neither was wearing a lifejacket.
The bodies of Declan Swift (47), from Derrin Road, Enniskillen and Martin Steele (48), who lived at Mullaghdun but was originally from Enniskillen, were recovered on Sunday by divers from the Boyne Fisherman's Rescue.
Robert Nelis (25) and Shane Clarke (24) found Mr Swift's body at around 10 o'clock that morning in 30' of water on the west side of Devenish.
Two of their colleagues recovered Mr Steele's body later that afternoon in 33' of water, some 40 metres downstream.
Martin Gerard Steele (48), an electrician, known as 'Marty', lived with his partner, Rita at Mullaghdun. He previously resided at Derrygore Terrace, Enniskillen and was a son of Teresa and the late Patrick Steele and a brother of Maria, Hillview, Enniskillen and Freddie, Derrygore Terrace.
He enjoyed fishing, boating, hunting and his two cats.
Declan Swift (47) is survived by his wife, Marian. The couple resided at Derrin Road, Enniskillen. He too was an electrician.
He was the son of Rita and the late Tommy Swift and a brother of Aidan, who was his twin and of Kevin, Brendan and Rosemary who lives with her husband in Belfast. The other family members live in Enniskillen. Declan's principal interest was boating.
News of the tragedy, following on in the wake of a house fire in Enniskillen which claimed the life of an eight month old baby girl, stunned the entire community.
The four divers who found the bodies of the two boatmen were among eight divers from Boyne Rescue who got the call at 1 o'clock the previous day, arriving at Lower Lough Erne, at the Lough Erne Yacht Club premises, at around 4pm to join other emergency services, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (Fermanagh), Erne Rescue, the North WEst Mountain Rescue team, who located a pair of waiders near the spot where the bodies were located and Police divers from England.
Constable Gavin Huey, who had hands-on command of the two-day search and recovery operation, revealed that two Police sniffer dogs on board the PSNI rescue boat had narrowed the search area to about about 120 metres from the shore.
"They stay in the boat, they smell the water and they can smell if there is a person in the water".
The officer retold the harrowing take of how a middle-aged couple from Newtownabbey who were on board a cruiser in the Lower Lake were the first to spot the two men in difficulty.
"They saw a boat going down stream at a considerable speed. In fact, they told us it appeared to be out of control. A boat doesn't do a handbrake turn, but it was smething like that. Perhaps it hit a wave. At any rate, the men in the boat were flung out into the water.
"The couple responded immediately. One of the men went down immediately, so they threw a life ring to the second man, but there was no response from him. He may have been unconscious at that stage. They threw the life-ring at the man again and he still didn't catch it. Then, he went down before their eyes.
"Those people are in a terrible state at the moment," Constable Huey added.
"They were not fit enough themselves to go into the water after them. They telephoned ourselves at 12.01 on Saturday. We had been out in the area and we were able to respond very quickly, as did the RNLI who arrived a short time after us."
The officer confirmed that the lightweight 16' boat was only registered with the lough warden that morning, and that its owner, Mr Swift had been traced from its chassis number. The boat, a Quiksilver Five' was due to be moored at moorings at Riverside behind Enniskillen Police Station. Mr Swift had just put in three new posts to attach it to.
"We're having it examined by an agency to see if it had any mechanical problems," Constable Huey added.
"It is a big loss. There were life jackets in place, but I think this was a spur of the moment run where one man would have said to the other, 'come over and I'll show you my new boat' ".
Air, sea and rescue services from Sligo, with heat-seeking equipment and a Police helicopter were enlisted in a co-ordinated search and rescue operation that endured till dark on Saturday night and began at first light on Sunday morning.
Constable Huey revealed that, along with the divers, two brothers of Mr Swift had personally helped him transfer the divers back and forth to the search area and they had insisted on carrying on even after their brother's body was recovered.
Robert Nelis and Shane Clarke, the Boyne Rescue divers who found Mr Swift's body at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning explained that they were diving from a boat, holding on to a steel bar which was attached by rope to the boat. The boat then pulled them along the lake, allowing them to look underwater for a body wth their torches.
"We were expecting it. We do a lot of training and we are out in a lot of searches and we've recovered quite a few bodies," Robert explained.
Fred Storey of Erne Search and Rescue, the group involved in a prolonged river search for the body of Arney man, Patrick Timoney, told the 'Herald' that his club's divers had been searching close to Devenish. He described visibility underwater as, 'very bad'.
"The divers were working with their hands. If you close your eyes, that's how bad the visibility was. They have torches with them, but they weren't seeing much with a torch, only to be able to read the air gauge. Once at the bottom, it's generally by feel", he explained.
Constable Huey, through the 'Herald', paid tribute to the volunteer divers from the Boyne Fisherman's Rescue and Erne Search, the North West Mountain Rescue team, who provided invaluable expertise in radio communications and Rescue for their generous commitment.
"For a voluntary groups, they're really professional", he said. "Some kind of credit definitely goes there, and I just feel guilty we can't do more for them. I feel I should be able to take a cheque-book and, say this is for food, accommodation and fuel, but we are gathering up what we can for them".
Mr Swift's remains will leave his mother's home at Hillview Road, Enniskillen this evening at 8.15 to arrive at St Michael's Church, Enniskillen at 9 o'clock. The funeral Mass is at 11 o'clock tomorrow (Thursday) and burial is in Breandrum Cemetery.
SDLP Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Tommy Gallagher extended his sympathies to both families.
"The deaths of these two local men who, like hundredths of others were out for a trip on Lough Erne on Saturday, has left the entire community stunned and saddened. "
Michael Ravensdale, who got to know Declan Swift 20 years ago, in an e-mail from England, said he was extremely sad to learn of the deaths of Declan Swift and Martin Steele.
"My thoughts are with their respective families. Declan, who I met over 20 years ago, was a particulary decent, honest and intelligent individual with a wicked sense of humour. Coming from England , my only insight to life in Northern Ireland was from newspapers, so I was nicely surprised to receive a warm and friendly welcome from Fermanagh people.
"One of my first meetings with 'Swifty' was in the 'Bush', on a typically rainy Summer's day 20 years ago with his close friend, Peter Goan, a chef from a local hotel whose name was also Declan, and one or two other worthies. In the rear bar of the Bush there were three skylights, the middle one leaked like a sieve. Rather than moving to an adjacent table, Declan asked the bar staff to erect an umbrella over us!".
