Warning about Water Safety in Longford

It was a busy week for Lough Ree RNLI as their volunteers were on the water to assist four boats in difficulty on the lake in the last seven days.

Just before 4pm on Sunday (2 June) Lough Ree RNLI was requested by the Irish Coast Guard to go to the assistance of a cruiser which was in difficulty and taking on water at Quaker Island, off the Longford shore.

In very good weather conditions the lifeboat launched under volunteer helm Kieran Sloyan and volunteer crew Liam Sheringham, Stewart McMickan and Amy O’Connor.

On reaching the scene at the northern end of the lake at 4.35pm the crew examined the stricken vessel and despite pumping water off the boat the problem persisted. In the interests of safety, it was decided to take the boat under tow to the safety of a boatyard in Laneboro.

While on this call-out the RNLI Lifeboat crew were advised of another craft with four people on board stranded north on Beam Island at the southern end of Lough Ree.

On arrival at the scene the volunteer crew found that a passing private boat had assisted and the lifeboat remained on standby while the grounded cruiser got to safer water.

On Friday afternoon (31 May) Lough Ree RNLI was called to assist 2 people on board a boat which had run aground on Green Island. Under volunteer helm Kieran Sloyan the volunteer crew of Ruth Costello, her brother Billy Henshaw Jnr and Patrick Walsh a launched at 2.35pm and reached the scene 15 minutes later to find both people on board safe and well. Following an inspection of the boat and an assessment of the scene the boat was safely recovered from the rocks and continued under its own power.

Earlier last week, on Tuesday (28 May) Lough Ree RNLI assisted 2 people on board a cruiser which had ruin aground at Fat Island. On assessment of the scene volunteer helm Liam Sheringham along with fellow crew Patrick Walsh and Billy Henshaw Jnr decided to evacuate the boat, take the two casualties on board the lifeboat ‘Tara Scougall’ and transfer them to the lifeboat station at Coosan Point. The stricken boat was anchored and secured.

An interesting aspect of the weekend call-outs was that two new female crew, Ruth Costello and Amy O’Connor both were on their first ‘shouts’ as crew members. Lough Ree RNLI volunteer Lifeboat Operations Manager Kevin Ganly said: “It's brilliant to see new crew members, especially women, taking their place on the lifeboat and making such an important contribution to our community. We look forward to having many more join them in the next 12 months.”