‘He was someone you’d want in your corner’
COAST GUARD winchman Ciarán Smith was remembered last night as a ‘beautiful man inside and out’ by a close friend.
Speaking on his way to the scene of Monday’s disaster off the Co, Mayo coast, Niall Maxwell said his friend and near neighbour knew the perils of his job but never let them get him down.
Father-of-three Ciarán Smith, 39, from Swords, Co. Dublin, was one of the R116’s three remaining crew for whom the search was ongoing yesterday.
The winchman lived in Oldtown in Dublin, 20 minutes from the Coast Guard airport base, for more than a decade.
A keen cyclist, he had raised thousands of euro for charities over the years including a 1,100km race around Ireland in 2013, raising funds for the SOS (Suicide Or Survive) charity.
Mr Maxwell and his father had acted as support crew for him at the event.
Last night, Mr Maxwell told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Ciarán was a close friend. I went to secondary school with him… we were very close.
‘He was a gentleman. I heard Dara’s parents and sister talking about her on the radio and Ciaran was very much the same as her.
‘He was just a beautiful man inside and out. He was very quiet and unassuming and he was just always somebody you would want in your corner. He was just a great guy.’
Mr Maxwell said Ciarán was always talking about his wife, Martina, and their three young daughters. As well as the job, he was very much a family man. He spoke about his family more than anything else.’
He said Ciarán did talk about his job and was aware of the dangers.
‘He always had an understanding of the perils of the job but he never took any glory in it. He was very conscientious and while he had spoken to me about some of the more trying experiences… He also spoke about some of the funny incidents.
‘As far as his work was concerned, you never got a sense that he was carrying it in any heavy sort of away. It never got him down and that was his character – he always had a smile on his face.
‘No matter what was going on, he had great grace,’ he said.