Body recovered off West Cork coast

The body of a man has been recovered from the sea off the coast of the Cod's Head area in West Cork. John O'Leary from Barness in Allihies, who was in his 60s, had been sailing with his teenage son Christopher when their boat capsized yesterday afternoon.

The father and son spent about four hours clinging to the overturned boat before Christopher swam 1km to the shore to raise the alarm.

A major search operation led by the Coastguard based at Valentia began at around 9pm and included the Castletownbere RNLI boat, a Coastguard Sikorsky helicopter which was dispatched from Shannon as well as Coastguard teams who searched the coastline for the missing man.

Mr O'Leary's body was spotted by the helicopter at around 1.30am this morning and was brought ashore by the RNLI boat. A post mortem will take place today at Cork University Hospital. 

Meanwhile, the search for a missing trawler in Spanish Point, Co. Clare is continuing today after it was reported missing last night. The boat, which had two local fisherman aboard, was due to return home at 5pm yesterday but failed to do so and the alarm was raised at 9pm last night. The Kilkee and Doolin Coastguard, Aran Islands RNLI Lifeboat and a Coastguard helicopter from Waterford are among those involved in the search.