TOM JOYCE - BREATH OF FRESH ATLANTIC AIR
The news of Tom Joyces sudden death in the Aran Islands at the end of November was a real shock. Though aged only 48, Tom had been a leading figure in west coast fishing for many years. He became renowned in the wider maritime community in 2006 for the style and skill with which he skippered Steve Mulkerrins Chicago-built 49ft Galway hooker Naomh Bairbre for the west-east crossing of the Atlantic in the early summer of 2006. For this achievement, Steve Mulkerrins was the winner of the Cork Dry Gin/Afloat International Sailor Award for 2006, which he shared with his crew.
It was typical of Tom Joyces busy way of life that when he was contacted in January 2007 about his invitation to the upcoming awards ceremony in February at the Dublin Boat Show, it emerged that he was returning the call from the wheelhouse of his MFV Westward Isle a hundred miles north of Malin Head, and he soon had persuaded Steve Mulkerrins to fly home from America for the event.
Tom and Steve and Toms wife Sile and the shipmates from Naomh Bairbre were a breath of fresh Atlantic air when they arrived into the awards ceremony just a year ago. His joy in seafaring, friendship, family and music was legendary the Naomh Bairbre voyage had been his second Atlantic crossing under sail, hed come across home to Killeany in the yacht Simple Pleasures with his brother Pat from Boston via Newfoundland in 2001. He was a great man, who was fishing until three weeks before his death, cruelly struck down by leukaemia. Our heartfelt condolences go to Sile and her children, Cillian and Elaine, and to Toms many friends.
Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive
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News From the Afloat.ie Archive
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