New low in Ophelia lunacy
NEW footage shows two young men jumping off Galway’s Blackrock diving tower into the Atlantic at the height of Hurricane Ophelia last Monday.
This has emerged in a week where there have been calls for so-called thrill-seekers to be prosecuted for ignoring weather warnings and instructions from gardaí after a number of search and rescue missions were launched on Monday.
The video shows huge waves thudding into the diving platform in Salthill as the young men climb to the top in the face of wind gusts touching 130kph.
They then jump off one by one into the raging sea, the first attempting an Olympic-style dive and the second just bombing in.
Eventually emerging from the tossing froth of the storm-driven waves, the two men struggle to
‘It seemed more difficult to get out each time’
swim back to solid ground at the platform, but eventually drag themselves back onto land.
Ryan McKenna, who shot the footage while walking past the Salthill platform, said the pair dived in three times.
He said: ‘I felt I might have to step in and throw a rope or something when I saw them jump that third time. There is no way I was getting into the water.
‘I wasn’t going to put myself into that kind of risk. It appeared more difficult to get out each time with the rapid swell frequency.’
The two men were apparently unscathed.
The issue of thrill-seekers ignoring weather warnings came to the fore this week during Hurricane Ophelia.
News footage of swimmers, including Timmy Flaherty, 72, led to a backlash. But Mr Flaherty was at least in advance of the hurricane passing over Galway, and walked in off the steps, rather than diving from the tower.
He said: ‘It’s up to each individual, whatever turns you on.’
A yacht also had to be pulled to shore by lifeboats in Rosslare.
In response to public outrage, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that making ignoring weather warnings a crime now ‘merits consideration’.