Boy, 16, dived into river to save woman during storm
A TEENAGER has been hailed a hero after he dived into a river to rescue a drowning woman during Storm Desmond.
Fifth-year student Dylan Murphy, 16, says it felt great to have saved someone’s life after he leapt into the freezing waters of the River Colligan in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford.
His cool head, quick thinking – and lessons in lifesaving from his grandfather years beforehand – helped him to pull a woman to safety at the height of Storm Desmond last month.
On RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday, Dylan said: ‘We were just done working inside in the Anchor Bar [in Dungarvan] and we were sitting down having a talk.’
According to the secondary school student, one of his fellow employees, Clodagh Murphy, left to go home early.
When she was heading home she saw a woman fall into the quay at around 2am and tried to rescue her using a buoy.
But Dylan said: ‘The current caught her [the woman] and started to drag her out further into the middle of the quay where the strongest point of the river was.’
Clodagh tried to throw a buoy into her but she couldn’t reach the woman so she ran back to the pub to raise the alarm among her colleagues.
‘We were all out fast. I was the only really strong swimmer there and then Clodagh handed me another buoy and I took off my trousers, my jumper and my runners and I jumped in then and I swam towards her with the buoy faced in front of me, so it was facing her.’ The dramatic rescue unfolded on December 20, when weather conditions across the country were at their worst.
He said: ‘By the time I got to her then she was starting to go under because she was wearing a big leather bag, wrapped around her shoulders and a big leather jacket and pants.
‘So I caught her then by the jacket and I dragged her up and I got her to hold on to the buoy while I secured her hand with a piece of rope, I wrapped around her hand just in case she let go.’
Another friend of Dylan’s was holding the other end of the rope and he pulled the buoy and the
‘Current started to
drag her out’
woman to shore.
‘I swam behind her, then, to make sure she was all right and got up to the ladder safely,’ Dylan added.
When asked by Liveline presenter Joe Duffy how the woman was, he said: ‘She was mostly just in shock.
‘After being pulled out of the water she was in a lot of shock.
‘She was freezing and she was just put into the back of the fire truck until the ambulance came.
‘I was gone home before the ambulance came.
‘I went home to change my clothes and have a shower. She was brought to hospital that night and she was treated for hypothermia and her lungs were hoovered.’ Dylan revealed that the woman at the heart of the drama came to see him three days later.
‘She thanked me and she gave me a card. She didn’t really remember what happened.’
When asked if he had undergone any training, he said: ‘I did a little bit when I was younger in primary school and all that out in Clonea Leisure Centre.
‘My grandfather brought me in there and he trained me until I was able to protect myself.’
One caller told the show that what Dylan had done was an act of ‘great heroism’.
Presenter Duffy asked the young 16-year-old what it had been like to save someone’s life.
Dylan said: ‘It feels great, it’s hard to explain.
‘I don’t have the words really to explain it. It’s a very good feeling.
‘I was grateful for her to come in and say thank you.’
Dylan is back in school now and is in fifth year in Coláiste Chathail Naofa.
He works as a bottle boy in the Anchor Bar in Dungarvan.
Dylan said his teachers and schoolmates had acknowledged his brave feat and were praising him for his actions.