The 50th anniversary of the Evelyn Marie tragedy is to be marked with a special mass next week.
On Tuesday the 7th of January, 1975, six young Donegal men were tragically killed when their fishing boat, the Evelyn Marie, struck a rock off the coast of the small Rathlin O’Byrne island and sank.
Patrick Bonner, Hugh Gallagher, Johnny O’Donnell, Rolo Faughnan, Tom Ham and Joe O’Donnell lost their lives in the tragedy.
The remains of four of the men were never recovered.
A special mass remembering all six men will be held at St Columba’s Church, Acres, Burtonport next week on Tuesday the 7th of January – exactly 50 years to the day and date of the tragedy.
The mass will take place at 12pm.
Families of the victims of the Evelyn Marie, and another ship which sank at the same spot at Rathlin O’Byrne just two years later, the Carraig Una, have been urging the Irish government for answers in the decades following the respective incidents.
While a formal inquiry was never established into either tragedy, preliminary reports were made but never released to the public or the families of victims.
