A melancholy loss of life took place on the river Shannon, within five miles of Nenagh. Master Edmond Bourke (eldest son of John Bourke, of Tintrim, Esq, JP) in company with two men named Fahy and Conway, was on an excursion of pleasure in his father’s yacht. On entering Lough Derg with swelling sails a sudden squall bowed the vessel on her side and dipped the sails beneatht he surface of the water. The yacht recovered her upright posture, but being so full of water she went down gradually until completely hidden from view. The two boatmen perished, but Master Bourke clung to an oar and struggled with his fate. He was picked up in the last stage of exhaustion by some persons who had witnessed the melancholy scene from the shore, and had put out a boat to his assistance.
The Dublin Monitor 8 July 1841 quoting the Limerick Chronicle
Irish waterways history 