PHILLIPS, HACKETT AND GIBNEY PART OF GREAT RESCUE
HERE is a report from 50 years ago this week when three local men played a part in the rescue of a boy at Bettystown. Brian Phillips, Victor Hackett and Gerry Gibney grabbed the headlines.
Here’s the report: “There was really no heroics attached to the rescue. I just went out in the boat, took the boy from his rubber dinghy and came back. Anybody could have done it.’
With these words a young Drogheda man, Brian Phillips of 30 Boyle O’Reilly Terrace, dismissed the incident on Wednesday of last week at Bettystown when he played a major part in saving the life of 12-years-old Dublin boy, Christy Dunne, Tongue-Field Road, Kimmage.
Together with two friends, Victor Hackett of 26 North Road, and Gerry Gibney, 32 Chord Road, Brian had finished work in McDonnell’s margarine works. The three youths decided to go for a swim in Bettystown and had been in the water for a while when they saw a rubber dinghy about two hundred yards from the shore.
“The boy on the dinghy did not appear to be in any sort of trouble, was not shouting or waving,” explained Gerry Gibney, “so we did not pay any attention to him. Later on, when we came in to the shore, a man who had been looking at the boy through a pair of binoculars said he appeared to be in trouble. We got a rowing boat from a couple of men and Victor, Brian and myself tried to push it out but the current was too strong.”
A Dublin woman, Mrs. Mary Kavanagh and her son, Owen, who were on holiday at Bettystown came along with on outboard motor and this was fitted. Mrs. Kavanagh asked one of the Drogheda youths to go with herself and her son in an effort to rescue the boy. They decided that Brian Phillips should go, as he was the best swimmer of the three.
Says Brian, “Victor and Gerry helped me to push the boat out so that we could get the motor working It took us about twenty minutes to reach the boy, who had drifted about three miles from the shore. Wher we reached him, I bent over honour boat and lifted him aboard. I also took his dinghy and deflated it, The boy was shivering and crying, On the way back, he went to sleep in my arms. As we reached the shallow water on our return, I jumped out of the boat and pushed it to the shore. When I lifted the boy from the boat to carry him ashore I was really exhausted and handed him over to another Drogheda man, Dan McKenna.”
“By this time,” said Victor Hackett, “a crowd of about three or four hundred had gathered on the shore and the Gardai had arrived on the scene. The boy was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and we slipped away quietly.”
Brian Phillips, in addition to being a strong swimmer, is also a fine all-round sportsman for he has held three juvenile titles during his boxing career. He has now turned his attentions to Rugby and plays for Drogheda Rugby Club. Both Gerry Gibney and Victor Hackett are Gaelic footballers.’