Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AN OFF-DUTY duo of brother-and-sister lifeguards have been commended after rescuing a man from almost certain drowning on their way home from work.
Bernard and Róisín Cahill, who work in Lahinch in Co Clare, were returning from their own lifeguard shift one evening recently when chance brought them to the nearby area of Spanish Point.
It was to be a particularly fortuitous detour for one man who had gotten himself into trouble in the water.
“I was driving home from work at 7pm, and usually I’d go from Lahinch to Ennis, but we were dropping a colleague home so we were out of the way and we ended up at Spanish Point,” Bernard told TheJournal.ie.
We stopped, and I was on the phone to my Mum, and we saw two people swimming into what we knew was a serious rip current. The lifeguards were finished for the day, otherwise they’d never have been let swim there.
I just said to Mum, we might have a rescue here.
When Bernard and Róisín reached the water they realised the male swimmer, who is over 50 and hails from Ennis but was unfamiliar with the rip current, “was in serious trouble”.
“The sea there looks like there’s nothing unusual going on, because the beach is flat. It’s a surf beach. You have to know the current’s there,” says Bernard.
While Bernard swam to the stricken bather (whose female partner had managed to struggle to safety), Róisín borrowed a local’s kayak in order to help.
“It was a two-person job really,” he says. “When we got to him he was in awful trouble, so we got him in the kayak and back to shore. But he knows how lucky he was.”
Bernard describes a strong rip current, a common hazard off Ireland’s west-coast beaches in particular, as like “being on a treadmill”. “If you’re used to it you swim across and use the incoming waves to get away from trouble. But this man didn’t know that. He was trying to fight it”.
The pair have now been commended by Clare County Council for their heroic action. But for Bernard, that isn’t the point.
“We’re not the story, the incident wasn’t a huge thing for us to do, we understand the risks and we know how to deal with them,” he says.
But you have to understand, that day alone there were 17 rescues on Co Clare beaches by lifeguards. People need to know the risks and to swim safely.
If 17 people died on our roads in a day people would certainly sit up and take notice. It would be huge news.
“The woman in this incident, she was in a swim club,” Bernard adds. “And she struggled to get back in. You have to understand the risks of the sea.”
Irish Water Safety has a full guide on how to spot rip currents, and how to escape them, here
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Well done Bernard and Roisin !
For the lifeguards to save 17 people in one day on a single beach is proof that more awareness is needed here ..that’s a shocking number .. Fair play to these guys .. good article .
@Suzie Sunshine: watch bondai rescue. It’s infuriating. Sometimes the lifeguards can rescue someone, explain the dangers of a rip and the same person or their mates end up going back in and rescued a second time. People ignore lifeguard flags and sometimes instructions. Must be a mix of bravado, not liking being told what to do (even by a trained lifeguard responsible for your safety) or just plain stupidity. Quite a few Irish on Bondai guilty of this.
@Suzie Sunshine: saving 17 people one day!!!! Sorry that’s BS. It’s headline stuff if one person drowns yet you believe that they saves 17 in one day. Complete rubbish.
@Sean Murphy: so you don’t believe the life guard’s story .. okayyy…
@Sean Murphy: Why BS Sean? Have you been to Co Clare on a busy summer day? There is Ballyvaughan, Kilkee, Fanore, Lahinch, Spanish Point, Whitestrand, Doonbeg and on and on. On a busy day you could have thousands of people at the beach, 17 rescues is not incredible.
Very well done Bernard and Roisin. Great to see the work of lifeguards recognised! People can get carried away with the beauty of an unfamiliar beach. Always best to check tides and conditions online first and talk to locals about safe places to swim, if lifeguards aren’t on duty.
I’m a decent swimmer regularly swimming 60-80 lengths in a 25 metre pool. When I swim in the sea I never go deeper than my waist and stay as close to the shore as possible. I never understand why people feel that they have to swim as far out as possible.
They deserve a medal after puttibg themselves at risk to save others, well done.
@Chris Kirk: here’s a medal for doing your job. They are trained to do it and when they do it sure here’s a medal.
@Sean Murphy: still risking their own lives to save others though ..
@Sean Murphy: they were off duty , credit where credit is due .
But 17 people didn’t drown in a day so that’s a silly comparison. I’m sure 17 people have near-death experiences on the roads each day, if we’re comparing like-for-like! That bit aside, I wholeheartedly that we should be safer in the water though!
And if the lifeguards weren’t there how many do you think may have died ?
The minute you stop respecting the sea you are lost.
I live close to the beach & the number of people who come out of Dublin for the day to go to the beach & have no idea about water safety. Kids in & out of the water while parents are on their phones/ipads not watching what is going on around them. Water is one of the things that we as a nation don’t seem to respect or understand.
@bings: Indeed. For an island nation we seem to have a serious lack of knowledge about the ocean. I live by several beaches and see it every summer. A few years back I was going surfing, therefore there was a good swell and lots of water moving, and passed a woman standing beside rocks on which is painted ‘Danger: do not swim here’ She has also passed a sign on the way to the beach warning of dangerous conditions on this beach. She was actively encouraging her kids to swim further out into, what I know is, a strong rip. I went over to tell her that it wasn’t safe and that a number of people have drowned on this beach, her reply was “what’s it got to do with you?”
@Tony Le Blanc: People are such morons. I took some crazy risks as a kid. I don’t want my own kids doing the same. I try to explain danger to them.
They are good kids. Their Mam should be proud.
Quote from Eliz 1st: God breathed & they were scattered. A reference to Spanish Point.
Terminology of “rip tide” maybe isn’t effective enough. “You could get swept away from here: go back ” is clear and stark.
Well done to both of you!! I was caught in one when on Holiday few years ago and I thought this is it its over for me.He is one lucky man
Well done to all. Good article.
Well done to all lifeguards.,and to the journal for hi lighting it.
Shame it doesn’t make tomorrow’s Sunday papers it deserves to !!
have your say