Nenagh sub aqua club members rescue distressed heifer floating in middle of Lough Derg

We have all heard about the cow that jumped over the moon, but have you heard the one about the cow that swam the River Shannon?

Last Thursday, Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club members Tom Shaw and Simon O’Duffy were on duty providing cover for Ger Moore’s Swim Against Suicide fundaising event in which he swam the length of the Shannon without a wetsuit, the first person to do so, when they spotted an object floating in the water

“We were on our way from Dromineer to Portumna, heading north and were about a half-a-mile off the Ballinderry side when Tom, who was driving the boat, spotted something floating towards us in the water. At first, he thought it was a human body. We circled back around and saw that it was a heifer. She was floating out in the middle of the lake and seemed to be quite distressed,” said Simon.

They reported the find to the Irish Coast Guard and decided to try rescue the heifer themselves, with Tom making a lasso.

“The weather conditions were desperate. It was lashing rain and the strong wind and waves made the task difficult,” said Simon, who after several attempts eventually got a rope tight enough around her head that he was able to hold her close to the boat, with her head out of the water.

“We slowly towed the heifer towards shore. It seemed to work and she calmed down,” he said.

It took about an hour to get the animal to shallow water near Drominagh where she slowly got to her feet.

“Once the rope was off, she wandered ashore and started grazing away like nothing had ever happened!” he said.

They contacted the IFA with her herd number and let them know where she was.

The heifer was subsequently re-united with her owner, who lives on the Galway side of Lough Derg - meaning the animal swam over one mile from home.

Owner Brian Lyons of Shragh near Woodford in county Galway revealed that 13 animals had gone missing that night. Five were located in Tipperary with the rest found locally.

However, one is still missing and he is asking farmers and lake users to keep an eye out for it.

“Something spooked them and they just thundered into the water,” he said.

He thanked the sub aqua club as well as the farmers in Tipperary who looked after the animals in their fields, along with the locals around Shragh who helped out.