Coast guard’s SOS for new volunteers

WANTED: fit men or women. Must be willing to commit. Love of outdoors an advantage.
The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard has put a call out searching for volunteers. The branch currently has in the region of 20 members but is now seeking fit men and women, who are willing to commit to one of the busiest coast guard bases in the country.
“We took on some new members last year, now we are looking for more. We had 12 applications last year and we took on six, so I’d say we are looking for maybe four this year but we are open to any number of applications,” said Mattie Shannon, station officer of the Doolin unit.
While certain skills are desirable, Mattie believes commitment has been the most important trait of successful candidates in the past.
“The Irish Coast Guard has only one stipulation and that is that people we take in should be able to swim. That said, the main thing we look for here locally is that they would have the time and the commitment because it is a big commitment, up to 500 hours per year,” he explained.
“Anyone over the age of 18 can apply but they would ideally be in their late 20s to early 30s. Also, the closer to Doolin they live the better chance they have because the first 10 minutes of any incident are the most important but the two main things are commitment and availability. The skills really come further down the list because you can learn them. It is about wanting to be in it,” Mattie continued.
Doolin and the other units of the coast guard participate in cliff and marine rescue, search, recovery and pollution monitoring. The Irish Coast Guard is a part of the 999/112 emergency system and volunteers are on call 24 hours a day, all year round.
Having attended 45 incidents last year, as well as taking part in training and drills, volunteering with the coast guard does have its downsides.
“The disruption to family life is a bit of a challenge but we have found that families are very supportive. There are also times when you might feel that being called at 3 o’clock in the morning for five minutes or half an hour for a false alarm is not ideal but you carry on,” Mattie said.
For him, and the other members of the team, the positives outweigh the negatives.
“There is very good will towards us here in the community. Being in the coast guard is also very energetic and there is great camaraderie. It can be very educational because there are lots of courses too that people do over four years that are very beneficial. They can learn about first aid, climbing, boating, navigation, searching and so on. A lot of people move on to other jobs from it as well, some people become paramedics. The main thing everyone gets out of it is self-satisfaction. It is a community organisation, nearly like a football team in ways,” Mattie concluded.
Interested candidates can access further information by logging on to www.doolincoastguard.com/join-us, by emailing info@doolincoastguard.com or calling 087 7529603.