Programme 6
Tuesday 28 August 2007 8.30pm
For many communities dotted along the Donegal coastline, fishing was their life's blood. With limited employment, the young men who grew up in this tiny corner of Ireland were destined for a life at sea. But it wasn't just about the money. Fishing was the common bond between communities. In places like Killybegs and Burtonport little else was talked about.

RTÉ's Television Archive Unit looks at the lives of those affected by a litany of trawler disasters that hit the community hard in the mid-seventies and early eighties. It focuses on three trawler disasters in particular: the Evelyn Mari in 1975, the Carraig Una in 1976 and the Skifjord in 1981. Altogether sixteen lives lost at sea while trying to provide for their families.


Narrated by Doireann Ni Bhriain, Disasters also features the Doolin Drownings (1983) and Loreto Convent Fire, St. Stephen's Green (1986).