Five people lost their lives on the Carraig Una on this day 47 years ago

The crew of the MFV Carraig Una were lost when their trawler foundered at sea at Rathlin O’Beirne Island, off the Donegal coast, on November 23, 1976. 

The tragedy which occurred 47 years ago left many heartbroken families. The Carraig Una had only been fishing in the area for two months when tragedy struck. 

Micheál Coyle, 22, had just returned home from Scotland to try his hand at fishing. The young GAA player was one of five who was on the boat when the tragedy occurred. 

Those who died in the tragedy were skipper Ted Carbery (27), a native of Mountmellick, County Laois living in Dungloe, his brother-in-law John Boyle (18), Meenmore, Doalty O’Donnell (23), Meenbanad, Micheál Coyle (22), Meenmore, Dungloe and Anthony McLaughlin (18) of Ross Head, Glengad.

An RTÉ documentary which was produced in 2007 Disasters documents the tragedy at sea. The archived footage on the Carraig Una disaster can also be seen in full in Joe Mulholland’s award-winning documentary titled Lost at Sea. The documentary is dedicated to the lives of fishermen. 

It is understood that the Carraig Una skipper Ted Carbery made contact with the Onedin trawler after his vessel had struck rocks minutes shortly before 4am.

The Onedin skipper, Liam Duffy from Dungloe, sent a warning message to the Malin Head Coast Guard. The Arranmore lifeboat was launched.

Two helicopters from the army base at Finner Camp were sent out and searched until darkness fell. Around 30 trawlers from ports on the Donegal coast rushed to the island. The Irish Air Corps, Army, Navy and Gardai joined forces in the biggest and most expensive combined deep-sea search operation of its kind ever launched in the country, at that time.

When news of the disaster reached the RTÉ newsroom, Donegal-native, Joe Mulholland said he felt 'compelled' to go to document the tragedy. 

He told RTÉ: "I had regretted not going up and making a film about the Evelyn Marie, when the Carraig Una happened I just felt compelled to go and capture what was happening. Knowing that this was a tragedy and knowing that this was going to affect a community, which I knew, very, very badly.”

He and his crew were present to record the dangerous conditions faced by rescue teams and locals as they searched at sea. 

The Evelyn Marie and the Carraig Una were lost in the same area. 

Mr Mullholland said: "The story of the Carraig Una was just a desperate attempt to find the bodies. They may have kept on hoping that there was anybody alive somewhere but with the weather and the state of the sea it was impossible for anybody to survive in that water."

During the search operation the body of Ted Carberry was found. After two weeks, the difficult decision was made to call off the search.

Families along the coast were left heartbroken.