Memories of Leicester rescue recalled at a sad time

IT’S not too often you meet real-life heroes, people who have risked their lives to save someone else and then lived to tell the tale.

That’s why it was such a pleasure to chat to Duleek man Bernard Clarke a few years ago.

In October 1964, Bernard and wife Paulene were living in Leicester and he was working in the building trade.

He had just come home from work when a detonator in a shovel of coal that had been placed on the fire exploded, shaking the whole house and causing a major fire.

Their baby, John, was asleep on a seat and Bernard picked him up and ran to the door. But the explosion had jammed it shut and Bernard decided his only option was to crash through a window, with the child still asleep in his arms.

‘I suffered a big gash on my arm but otherwise we were fine and the baby didn’t even wake up! he stated. It’s one of those things that you do when you have no options.’

The rescue made the front page of the Leicester Mercury and to this day, he still treasures that framed page.

The family moved home to Laytown and then Duleek about 30 years ago.

Sadly, the little baby at the centre of a remarkable story, passed away recently, John Clarke of High Meadows, Station Road, Duleek.