13/04/2017 BBC Newsline

A woman has died after falling off a boat on Lough Erne

She had just arrived for a holiday with her husband and two

children, travelling from their home in Donegal.

It's thought she'd gone to check their hired cruiser

was moored securely to a jetty on Devenish Island

Our south west reporter Julian Fowler reports.

A scene of tranquillity but also of tragedy.

They had hired a cruiser for the weekend.

Last night, they moored at a jetty on Devenish

It was just after 1am and the children were asleep on board

when their 35-year-old mother fell into the water.

Her husband tried desperately to save her,

before he made a frantic call to the police for help.

We believe that she went to check the

securing of the ropes against the jetty before

and at that time she slipped and fell off

Her husband then jumped in after to try to retrieve her

but unfortunately was not able to do so.

The woman was found after about 45 minutes in the water, despite

attempts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead in hospital.

We are here to save lives and it is very

tragic when we are unable to do that.

And certainly the crew are affected by that.

Easter is the start of the boating season on Lough

Local politicians have expressed their shock at what should

have been a happy family holiday turned so quickly into tragedy.

That shock is shared in Donegal by those

The deceased was originally from China and the

husband was originally from Strabane.

The kids would have been going to local schools here and the

local businesses and shops, they would have known the family.

Both tourists and experienced boat users are being

urged to think about their safety while out on the water.

Please do come and enjoy the beautiful lakes

and waterways of Fermanagh, but at all times, obey the rules

of the water and most importantly, always,

Do we know if she was wearing a life jacket?

At the moment, we believe she was not wearing a life jacket.

A tragic reminder that this area of natural beauty is not without its

A preliminary report on the fatal crash of the Irish Coast Guard

Rescue Helicopter 116 has found that an onboard warning system

on the aircraft did not include data relating to Blackrock Island.

The helicopter crashed into the island off the coast

of Co Mayo on 14 March, with the loss of all four

The report also contains data from the voice recorder on R116,

and the final words of the crew before impact.

Rescue 116 went missing early in the morning of the 14th of March. It had

been providing cover for another helicopter on a rescue mission. It

crashed into first Mack approximately 12 miles of the bay in

County Mayo. All four crew members on board were killed. Captain Dara

Fitzpatrick was recovered from the seat but died shortly afterwards.

The body of Captain Mark Duffy was later recovered and funerals have

been held. But to others, the winchman, remain lost at sea. This

preliminary report from the air accident investigation unit Ireland

discusses the aircraft was my early ground position and warning system

and says the systems manufacturer has told it first Mack was not in

the obstacle database and the two reign of the island was not in the

terrain database. From transcripts of the crew is not final few words,

it appears they became aware the island was ahead of them and may

have attempted to pull up and steer around it at the last moment. But

this is a preliminary report and the investigations are continuing.

Four retired police officers are considering legal action

against the Police Ombudsman after their personal

The leak came to light following the arrest of a former

ombudsman investigator over an alleged theft of sensitive

A lawyer for the officers said the Police Ombudsman had

confirmed personal details were unlawfully disclosed.

Police have begun a criminal investigation.

Sinn Fein have welcomed a move by Arlene Foster

to meet Irish speakers to, as she put it, better understand

The DUP leader said yesterday she wanted to engage with people

who don't want to use Irish as a political weapon.

This report from our political correspondent Gareth Gordon.

If you feed a crocodile, they are going to

I do intend to listen and to engage with those from the Gaelic

Irish background, those without party political baggage or indeed

It is not such a long way from Stormont to West Belfast.

In areas like this, you could not avoid

the Irish language, even if you tried.

Which, politically speaking, may be just about where Arlene

Her Irish language olive branch already seems

Anything which encourages dialogue and

conversation, which encourages increased understanding of our

shared heritage has to be positive, so as we move

should take this initiative from Arlene Foster positively.

Fresh from meeting a representative of the government this morning,

this language activist says he would like to do the same

Hopefully it is a move towards the right direction, but

what we would be asking Arlene Foster also to do would

be to scratch below the

surface, to meet with parents and schools

and go out to see what the

Irish language community is really about.

There have been a number of invitations across the sector to

Arlene Foster and I really hope she needs the right

The apparent change of tune has also chimed with the groups to

use the Irish language Centre in Derry.

It has now issued an invitation to Arlene Foster.

I thought by inviting Arlene or her representative that we would be

able to demonstrate that our work is positive.

It is in no way political and it is in no way a threat.

I think there needs to be a better understanding of the Irish

And the people involved in it, that it is not all political.

This man describes himself as an Ulster Scots writer.

He started to learn Irish after hearing it spoken

If I were speaking to Arlene, I would say why

don't you join me and learn some lessons and find out for yourself

because I think that she would be surprised at the reception that

Things could be changing at Stormont, but maybe not that much.

Polio was once a serious viral infection in the western world,

causing serious disability in its victims.

Fortunately the disease is rarely heard of here today.

But a half a century on, some local people are still trying

Our health Correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly reports.

As a young lad growing up in south Belfast in the 1950s, Bobby Docherty

Now 73, he is still coping with the illness as

They are a nuisance but they are vital.

They allow me to get about but they are heavy.

Eddie grew up in Belfast Short Strand.

He was five when polio struck, triggering a long

A wasp got into the ward and the other three

were not as bad because they were not affected

as I was and they pulled the sheets above their heads and I

had to lie there and I was petrified.

At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, polio would paralyse or

kill over half a million people worldwide every year.

A virus that affects the muscles, here in the 1970s,

locals took part in vaccination programme.

There were two reasons for the scare.

There was the lady who was a contact and had the disease,

although she did not show symptoms and there was also a child from

Belfast who was in one of the caravan sites last week

and I think both of these cases frightened the

And more than half a century later, around 160 survivors

meet up weekly to continue the support.

In Musgrave, I was put in a plaster cast from my ankles to the

If I could comment on it, I think that was the exact

opposite of what they should have done because once the fever stage

was over they should have exercised me to get

The weekly Belfast meeting is organised by the Northern Ireland

polio Fellowship, established in 1939.

Now, in 2017, they are dealing with post polio syndrome.

I can say awful pain, but aches in parts were I thought I didn't

My left arm which was always very strong will get sore and

From my knees down now it will be like blocks of

The syndrome was recognised by professionals in the

1980s, but ad the disease has been eradicated in the West, it is not

The symptoms associated would be a general fatigue, so a

mental fatigue and a physical fatigue and also fatigue associated

with muscle wasting, weaknesses, muscle skeletal pain associated with

it and in some people you will have respiratory problems and

While there are no longer any new cases of polio in the UK, these

people are a stark reminder that the disease

is hardly gone and it is

We love spotting entertainment royalty when they pay us a visit

and and many people got a big surprise in Belfast today!

Social Media has been buzzing with an appearance

in the city by the actor Morgan Freeman.

The star of movies like The Shawshank Redemption

and Driving Miss Daisy was sighted having a stroll in the city centre.

He was also spotted in the Short Strand area,

where he was filming for a new television series.

The weather next, with Angie Philips.

Hello. Good evening. Cloud has been working into the course of today,

bringing some light showers. Through the night, it continues to close in.

It will bring more in the way of drizzly or showery rain, almost any

word. They will be some dry gaps and it is not particularly cold, with

temperatures settling between 5-7 C. temperatures settling between 5-7 C.

Tomorrow, things will brighten through the second half of Good

Friday but it is not a great start. It will still be wet. A weather

front sliding slowly west to east throughout the morning hours,

keeping it dull and dreary and quite wet for a time. Eventually, this

band of rain starts to work south into the Republic of Ireland and the

South of Scotland and England and Wales. To the south, it is mainly

dry. A breeze here. May give some bright intervals and temperatures of

16 Celsius. Cooler to the north of the rain band. Bright spells and

showers. Fairly frequent across Scotland and also over the Scottish

mountains. For Northern Ireland, it feels pressure with a north-westerly

breeze but it is also brighter. There will be some scattered showers

and many places will avoid them and there will be gaps in between.

Temperatures of 10-11 C. A chilly start on Saturday, but this could be

the best day of the eastern weekend. There will be some showers around

but dry and bright and the next weather front comes in on eastern

Sunday, bringing more cloud and the potential for some mainly patchy,

light rain and drizzle. Things become a little bit quieter again

hopefully on eastern Monday. Our next BBC Newsline

is at 6.25am in the morning You can also keep updated

with News Online.