Sea & Cliff Rescue service assists Gardaí with incident

BALLYBUNION Sea and Cliff Rescue responded to an incident on Easter Sunday to assist gardaí.

The voluntary group was tasked by the Marine Rescue Coordination Centre in Valentia to launch their IB1 D-Class rescue boat at the request of An Garda Síochána, who were dealing with an incident on the cliff walk in Ballybunion.

At 12.56pm, the boat was launched and remained in the water until they were stood down by An Garda Síochána after a successful outcome at 1.27pm. Members of the service also attended the Cliff walk to assist Gardaí.

The National Ambulance Service and the Ballybunion Unit of the Irish Coast Guard also attended the call-out.

Commenting after the incident, PRO for Ballybunion Rescue Omar Fitzell said “This weekend has seen a large volume of people coming to Ballybunion due to the weather being somewhat favourable for walking etcetera, so we would have been somewhat expecting a tasking this weekend.”

Sunday’s call-out comes on the back of a busy day for the unit on Saturday, which saw nearly 600 people line out for Run Ballybunion’s half marathon, 10k and 5k runs which aims to support this vital community rescue unit.

“We are very grateful for the organisers of Run Ballybunion, who have made Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue the sole benefactor of the proceeds from the race. A massive thank you to all the runners who should realise that their participation in the race yesterday allows us to do what we did today and put a rescue boat in the water in an exceptionally quick time. We really hope to grow the event in the years to come”