Roscrea native’s rescue of drowning boy in Kerry

Garda swam out to sea to save boy

A garda who hails from Roscrea has spoken of how his own safety was compromised when he went into the sea to save a child from what looked like almost certain drowning.

Niall Deegan was playing in the water with one of his young sons while on a family holiday in West Kerry when he heard a woman screaming for help as she struggled to hold on to a young boy who was being swept out to sea.

The experienced garda, who is based in Henry Street, Limerick, looked to the ocean and spotted the young boy struggling in the water.

“I could see his head bobbing underwater,” Niall recalled. “He was going in the current and I mean going - he was going at an awful rate of knots.”

The garda said the child was in deep water, completely out of his depth. “There was only one place he was going and that was out to sea.”

After warning his own son not to follow him, Niall headed out into the sea in a bid to rescue the child, putting his own safety at risk.

“I just took off swimming,” he said, before admitting that he himself was “not the best swimmer in the world”.

A woman on the beach who also responded in the emergency had managed to grab hold of the boy just before Niall reached them.

“When I got over the woman said, ‘take him, take him, take him’. I asked was she okay and she said she was,” Niall revealed.

The woman then proceeded to make her own way back to shore, but the rescue attempt was far from over, as Niall went on to reveal.

“The child’s head was bobbing up and down. When I grabbed him he was going under, so he started grabbing onto me and pushing me under,” said Niall, who estimated the boy’s age at 7 or 8.

The garda kept pushing the boy up over the surface of the water but the child, in blind panic, kept pushing him down as waves crashed over both of them.

“Both our heads went under the water. I was just thinking: ‘how am I going to get him out?’,” said Niall, whose long years of experience as a garda in dealing with crises and emergency situations appeared to stand to him.

“I knew there were rocks near the cliffs,” he revealed. “The only way, I thought, is to try and get up on those rocks; somebody will see us and we will be on land.”

CRISIS CONTINUES

However, the crisis continued as the rocks on which Niall wanted to bring the child were treacherous due to “waves hammering off them”.

Fortunately, before the garda managed to get himself and the boy to the rocks a surfer arrived on his board.

“I got the boy with one arm, pulled him out of the water and onto the surfboard with the help of the surfer,” said Niall.

At this stage even Niall appeared to have reached the point of exhaustion due to his efforts. “I said to the surfer I didn’t think I could physically swim in, so I held onto the board and kicked my feet,” said Niall.

After emerging from the water he was wrecked and could barely speak.

Recalling the incident Niall said: “Even talking about it now - it is emotional, knowing what could have happened. He was so young and being on the beach with my own children…

“There is no doubt in my mind that child was going to drown, he was gone. I don't say that lightly. If he had gone out further in that current I don't know how I would have got to him,” said Niall.

After the rescue the boy's father told the garda that he took his eyes off his son for only “two minutes”. However, Niall pointed out that timeframe was all its takes for a calamity to unfold.

“I told him [the father] straight out ‘your child was going to drown only for that lady screaming for help, myself going across and the surfer.’”

WORDS OF CAUTION

As people thronged to the beaches this summer, Niall had words of warning. “Everyone, just be extra careful, be vigilant and make sure to stay in your depth. Don’t think you are a better swimmer than you actually are.

“For parents, have your eyes on your children at all times. Water is there to be enjoyed by everyone but it can be lethal and treat it with respect,” concluded Niall, whose daring rescue was first reported in The Kerryman newspaper.

The incident occurred on Thursday, August 4 at Coumeenole beach, near Slea Head. The tragedy that could have unfolded but for the intervention of Niall, the woman and the surfer was particularly poignant as on the same day, further up the coast at Ballybunion, two siblings, Muriel Eriksson, a 62-year-old Irishwoman who was home on holidays from Sweden, and her brother, Dessie Byrne (50) sadly lost their lives in the water.