GARDAI have identified the three men who died in a boat accident off the coast of Coonana, south Kerry yesterday.
Post-mortem examinations have been carried out today on the bodies of three men who were found deceased near the South Kerry coast.
The three men were reportedly on a fishing trip, and their boat was found washed up near Coonana.
The men have today been identified as Latvian nationals and were aged 57, 38 and 30.
Two of them lived in Killarney and the other in Tralee.
All three men have families and had been living in Kerry for years.
The alarm was initially raised at around 6pm yesterday when the men’s boat was seen jutting out of the water.
Emergency services including coastguard teams and helicopter crews responded, and the first body was recovered close to Coonanna pier.
The bodies of the other two men were subsequently discovered several hundred metres from the shoreline.
The Irish Coastguard have given no indication yet as to what might have happened, although weather conditions at the time consisted of fresh swells of up to three metres.
A garda investigation into the incident is underway.
Locals described their shock at the tragic loss of the three men.
Father Larry Kelly, the parish priest in Caherciveen, said people in the area cannot believe what has happened.
“Everybody is shocked, these three young men, from what I can gather have come here fairly often in the past,” he said.
"We feel huge sorrow, heavy hearts for the families back home, it must be very tragic for them and everybody around here is devastated as well. It is a huge tragedy."
