River rescue hero hailed

By Joanne Little, Drogheda Independent - Friday February 21st 2003

A MEMBER of a local rescue service was hailed a hero this week after helping to save a young man from the icy clutches of the River Boyne in the early hours of last Sunday morning.

Leaving Cert student Craig Burke of the Boyne Fishermen Rescue and Recovery Service (BFRRS) raced from Storm nightclub where he was working after his emergency pager went off and was on the scene in less than a minute.

The man, in his early 20s, was seen entering the river at the Haymarket Bridge at 12.30am on Sunday, February 16 and the rescue services were immediately alerted through the community paging system.

‘The pager went off while I was working but I was so close by that I was able to get down to the Haymarket Bridge in just 30 or 40 seconds,’ explained Craig, a student at St Joseph’s CBS, who has been with the BFRRS for over three years.

‘As soon as I got to the bridge I could hear people screaming out in panic.

‘The only lifebuoy was on the opposite side of the bridge so I had to sprint across to get it.

‘I had just thrown the buoy into the river to the man when Michael Hodgins Jnr, who was at home when his pager went off, arrived to help.’

Both Craig and Michael held the rope and stayed with the drowning man until the lifeboat arrived on the scene.

‘The first thing we do in these circumstances is get the lifebuoy to the drowning person but we will enter the water ourselves if the situation worsens.

‘We were fortunate on Saturday night in that the conditions were quite reasonable. They could have been a lot worse and made the rescue a lot more difficult,’ said Craig.

According to a spokesperson for BFRRS, the rescue demonstrated the value of the paging system in saving lives on the river.

‘With the community paging system, our members received the man’s exact location in the river and were able to get to him without delay.

‘You could not put a value on the pagers. They have saved so many lives and saved so many families of heartbreak,’ she said.

The paging system was reinstated to BFRRS back in July 2002 following a public campaign and fundraising appeal calling for its return. It had been taken away from BFRRS in April of last year.

‘This latest rescue has highlighted the fact that the people of Drogheda were supporting an excellent cause in the Boyne Fishermen Rescue and Recovery Service,’ she said.

‘However, we couldn’t have done it without the invaluable support of the families who have lost loved ones on the River Boyne, Superintendent Fergus Doggett in Drogheda garda station and Caffrey’s Cabs who take in our emergency calls,’ she said.

Meanwhile, a benefit night will be held in aid of the BFRRS in the Stag’s Head, Sunday’s Gate, Drogheda on Thursday, February 20.

The night is being organised by Michael Faherty and Kevin Dunne, both of whom have lost loved ones in drowning tragedies on the River Boyne.

© Drogheda Independent