‘It is very fulfilling when you complete a rescue with the team’

SEEING the relief in people’s faces after being rescued from stranded vessels has been very rewarding, according to a local Killaloe Coast Guard volunteer.

Audrey Kenny and her husband Jason were recently honoured for their more than 20 years’ combined service as volunteers by the Irish Coast Guard.

She told The Champion that people really appreciate being rescued when vessels run aground or cut out the lake.

Coastal Unit Sector Manager, Damien Kelleher presented ten-year service medals to Jason and Audrey Kenny at Pier Head, Killaloe recently.

Audrey is the longest serving female member of the unit, who has completed all the necessary training qualifications. The second female member is Lucy Whenday, who joined the unit a few years ago.

Since Audrey joined ten years ago, she recalled three or four women had joined and subsequently left the unit.

Most of the group who joined with them more than 10 years ago have left for different reasons.

In May 2012, the couple joined the Killaloe Coast Guard Unit. At the time, Rhys, who is their eldest child was only five, which made it harder to get free for numerous training courses and call-outs.

Audrey recalled Rhys’ grandparents stepped in for child minding to give them the necessary time to fulfil their Coast Guard commitments.

On June 10 last, the couple were off-call on holidays but still responded to a call-out for a kayaker in the water in O’Briensbridge, as they knew on-call numbers were low that particular day.

When Jason and Audrey arrived at Pier Head, they were joined by Pearce Carroll and Tadhg Cronin to complete the launch. Jason recalled there may have been a delay in getting their vessel ready if they hadn’t decided to turn up.

The volunteers put the D-Class on the back of Killaloe Coast Guard’s jeep and headed off as quickly as possible by road to O’Brien’sbridge where a rescue boat was launched and this crew were also supported by Gardaí from Killaloe and Castleconnell.

“Tadhg was brilliant on the day. He was able to stay on shore. With all boat rescues, you need land crew because you have to be able to relay messages and move people from a vessel onto the shore or dry land,” he said.

A team from Killaloe Coast Guard conducted shoreline searches from Parteen to O’Briensbridge. After speaking with local residents, it was established the owner of the kayak had made it ashore and left the area in his car.

Killaloe Coast Guard completes water rescues off Scariff, Mountshannon and Killaloe up to Parker’s Point near Dromineer, which is covered by RNLI, apart from times when they are off the board.
Jason admitted volunteering in the Coast Guard requires a big commitment time-wise.

“It can be tough at times trying to find the time, but we love it. It is very fulfilling when you complete a rescue with the team. The training is brilliant.

“We have had mad calls such as rescuing a seagull from a marker buoy, which we called ‘Monty’. We had false call-outs as well. We have seen it all.

“Once we are tasked, we are normally in the water within ten minutes. Traffic congestion near Killaloe Bridge can pose problems trying to access the base in Pier Head in a hurry.

“Sometimes it has been faster to drive to O’Briensbridge and come in around Killaloe to Pier Head rather than trying to cross the bridge because of the traffic.”

On July 23, Killaloe Coast Guard rescued four ladies and two dogs from a 42 foot cruiser, which had gone aground onto the rocks in the lake as the experienced skipper thought they were in deeper water.

While the women were busy trying to put up the canopy, the gusting wind blew the vessel up on the rocks very quickly, leaving it stuck.

This call-out took about seven hours of the couple’s day from the time they left their home until they returned after their successful mission.

Coast Guard members had to transfer the casualties from their cruiser on to the Unit’s D-Class, which is more suitable for shallow water, onto the Rib and then onto dry land.

Jason said all members engage in dynamic risk assessment in all land and sea rescues.

“We couldn’t move this cruiser. The weather was starting to change and the light was starting to fade, so the priority was to move the ladies off the boat. We have seen some horrendous and fabulous stuff.”

When Coast Guard members arrive to assist a casualty at sea or on land, Audrey said you can see “the relief in their faces”.

Unlike fire fighters, Coast Guard volunteers don’t receive a retainer payment, which the couple feel should be considered given how time consuming their role is.

Even when a body is recovered in tragic circumstances, Audrey stressed this still provides some closure for the bereaved family, particularly at sea and some bodies are never found.

Audrey, née Daly, who hails from Limerick City, moved to set up a new home with Jason a few miles from Ballina about 15 years ago.

While Jason is originally from Corbally, Shannon Banks, he spent a lot of his childhood in Ogonnelloe and Killaloe.

Before the couple joined the Coast Guard, they enjoyed diving and were asked to come on board with Mountshannon Search and Rescue, which they did.

When this venture didn’t take off as planned, they continued diving with Brian Boru Dive Club.

While the couple can go diving together, they are not permitted to do this in Coast Guard gear or represent the Coast Guard with this activity.

Recently, the couple were swimming in Kilkee when they noticed an elderly woman in difficulty in the water.

Jason said to one of the woman’s friends I think she is in trouble. He replied that this woman swims in Kilkee regularly.

“The next thing was this woman went under the water. The two of us jumped in, we just happened to be at the edge of the water. We pulled her up and Audrey was holding her. The woman’s husband jumped in. He told me when we got them bought back to shore his wife had dementia.

“Maybe, she felt she could do more than she was capable of. This type of thing seems to happen to us the whole time. We just seem to be in the right place to make a rescue.”

Like most volunteers in the unit, they would like to operate from a new purpose-built Unit, which has been in the pipeline for years, instead of their converted sheds at Pier Head.

Jason said Killaloe could be a superb training base for Coast Guard Units all over Munster if a new centre was provided, as it isn’t affected by tide.

Jason and Audrey have jobs in the healthcare sector. Jason works as a rehabilitation instructor with Bluebird Care and is also in charge of disability-specific cases, staff training, education and development, online learning platforms, media/marketing. Audrey is a catering manager at Catherine McCauley House in Limerick.