Pictured: Irish woman who miraculously survived the Italian superyacht disaster
Exclusive: Locals in the village of Maugherow told us that Ms Murray, who comes from a well-known and respected family in the area, had been working in the yachting industry for several years
This is the Irish woman who miraculously survived the Italian superyacht disaster with only an injury to her leg.
The Irish Mirror has confirmed that Sasha Murray, 29, from a small village in northern Sligo, was one of 15 people rescued from the British-registered Bayesian luxury yacht when it sank off the coast of Sicily during a freak storm early on Monday morning.
Locals in the village of Maugherow told us that Ms Murray, who comes from a well-known and respected family in the area, had been working in the yachting industry for several years.
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News that Ms Murray was on the doomed yacht was only filtering through to the tight-knit community on Tuesday.
Locals said they were shocked but relieved that she had survived.
“I only heard a while ago there,” one local said. “The whole community is in shock. She is from a lovely family and everyone is relieved she survived okay.”
Another local said: “Sasha is from a very private family, who keep themselves to themselves. But they would all be well known in the area. We are only hearing bits and pieces just now.”
And another said: "She is fine."
Ms Murray’s mother Jessica and her brother Killian live in the village, but were not available for comment on Tuesday.
One neighbour told us the family would not be making any comment and a close relative of the Murrays also declined to comment.
But sources in the area did confirm that Sasha Murray, seen in this photograph from a martial arts event in the village seven years ago, was on the ill-fated boat - from which Irish-born billionaire Mike Lynch (59) is missing along with his daughter Hannah (18).
There were some 22 people on the yacht when disaster struck off the coast of Palermo in the early hours of Monday morning - and 15 of the passengers and crew survived, including Ms Murray.
One body was recovered from the scene - believed to be chef Recaldo Thomas - but six people are still missing, including Mr Lynch and his daughter.
The 59-year-old was reportedly born in Ireland and raised near Chelmsford in Essex. It's understood his mother was a nurse from Tipperary and his father was a fireman from Cork.
Mr Lynch is a Cambridge-educated mathematician who is known for co-founding the Autonomy Corporation and founding Invoke Capital. The tech entrepreneur made a vast fortune in the IT industry, having co-founded Autonomy in 1996 and building it into a leading UK firm before it was acquired by computing giant Hewlett-Packard. He sold the firm for an eyebrow-raising $11 billion in 2011, netting himself £500 million and has been lauded as 'Britain's Bill Gates' thanks to his business acumen.
Mr Lynch was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006 and was appointed to the science and technology council in 2011, while he was also elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.
In June of this year, Mr Lynch won a legal victory when he was cleared by a US court over the £8.6billion sale of his software firm to Hewlett-Packard. A jury in San Francisco found him not guilty on all counts. The verdict came after he was accused of inflating the value of his company, Autonomy, ahead of its sale.
He said at the time: "I am elated with the verdict and grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last ten weeks. My deepest thanks go to my legal team for their tireless work on my behalf. I am looking forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field."
His wife Angela Bacares , aged 57, walked on broken glass during the frantic escape from the yacht on Monday - and is now using a wheelchair.
She was desperately waiting for news on her missing husband and daughter - as Italian authorities use expert firefighter divers to try to gain access to the yacht, which is submerged in 50 metres of water.
We have established that Irish survivor Sasha Murray has been working in the yachting industry for around a decade.
Locals in Maugherow, which is in Yeats Country and some 38kms north west of Sligo town, said she began working in the field shortly after she left school.
Ms Murray is understood to have suffered a wound to her right leg when she managed to escape from the stricken yacht - but was otherwise uninjured.
She and the other survivors were being cared for by Italian medics on Sicily on Tuesday evening.
Her father Fionn was a well-known Formula Ford racing driver, but died in a plane crash off the Co Sligo coast in 1998 at the age of 32, when Sasha was a young girl.
Mr Murray was killed with his father-in-law Holger Schiller when their light aircraft crashed into the sea off Cummeen, Strandhill, Co Sligo.
The plane was an American built Rans S-12 D-MLAB.
There is now an annual Fionn Murray Memorial race at Mondello Park racetrack in Co Kildare. The annual race is held in August.
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