Garda recalls pier rescue

Garda Margaret Purcell vividly recalls St Patrick’s Day 2003. Then based in Kilrush, Garda Purcell was only in her second week serving in West Clare when, with Garda Denis O’Herlihy, she got a call to head for Cappa Pier as a woman was in the water.
“It was a beautiful sunny day. I was only 10 days into my new duty in Kilrush. I hardly even knew where Cappa Pier was. We didn’t know what we were going to. We heard there was a woman in the water but for all I knew I could have got my ankles wet,” Garda Purcell told The Clare Champion.
“I remember exactly what happened. It’s not something that you forget. I remember it all very clearly. It certainly wasn’t over quickly and it wasn’t one of those things that went in a blink,” she recounted.
Garda Purcell availed of her swimming skills and dived into the water at the pier, joining Anne Marie Histon, who was already trying to rescue the stricken woman.
“I saw a woman in the water, face down out beyond the pier in Cappa. There was a girl called Anne Marie Histon in the water, heading towards her. What I remember is the shocking cold of the water,” Garda Purcell recalled.
“Anne Marie and I got to the lady at the same time and we turned her over between us. We swam towards the pier wall,” she added.
The wall is 12 foot high and it proved impossible for Garda Purcell and her fellow rescuer to scale it with the injured party. “They weren’t able to pull us up by the pier wall. So we swam around to the front of a boat that was tied up by the side of the pier. Anne Marie and I pushed the lady up on to the boat and then the guys who were helping on shore got us out of the water,” Garda Purcell said, adding that she had immediately checked the rescued woman’s state of health. “I was quite confident that she was breathing. We put her into a recovery position and we stayed with her until the ambulance came,2 she said.
Last Friday Garda Purcell was awarded a Bronze Medal and Certificate of Bravery. Anne Marie Histon received the award some years ago.