In recognition of their dedication and commitment of time, energy and skills, seven members of the Galway RNLI crew were presented with long-service awards for achieving 50, 100, 150 and 200 services.

Each time the crew members respond to their pagers and head out to sea on a rescue counts as a service. The seven crew had amassed a total of 900 services between them, including 200 services by David Oliver — who has been with the Galway RNLI crew since the station opened in 1995.

Mike Swan, lifeboat operations manager with Galway RNLI said: “Every year we recognise the dedication of our volunteer crew by presenting long-service awards. This year we have a number of crew who achieved significant milestones including Lisa McDonagh with 50 services; Shane Folan and Olivia Byrne with 100 services; Declan Killilea, Brian Niland and David Badger with 150 services; [and] David Oliver with a record 200 services.

“Our lifeboat volunteers have all kinds of backgrounds and jobs. At a moment’s notice, they readily exchange work, comfort or sleep for cold, wet and fatigue. They spend many hours of their own time training together so they can meet the dangers and challenges they face on search and rescue missions at sea.

“The awards are not just to celebrate the achievements of the crew who are willing to drop everything at the sound of their pager, but also their families and friends who play a key role in supporting our crew to spend time saving lives at sea and being there for them when they get home after what may sometimes be a very challenging day or night on the water.”

Swan continued: “Our volunteer lifeboat crew is on call 24/7, 365 days a year. The average time from the call from the coastguard requesting the lifeboat and crew to launch, to the boat and crew being on the water is approximately 10 minutes, day or night.

“The area covered by the Galway RNLI Lifeboat and crew is the section of Galway Bay east of a line between Black Head in Co Clare and Spiddal, Co Galway and includes Barna, Salthill, Galway city and the mouth of the River Corrib, Oranmore, Kinvara, Newquay and Ballyvaughan.

“Last year our crew and lifeboat launched 33 times and came to the aid of 31 people. This is only possible due to the dedication of our crew who go to sea and the wider group of volunteers who provide shore support and fundraising support which in turn relies on the generosity of our community in Galway further afield.”

The impact of the current marine heatwave on Ireland’s coastline is being recorded by international researchers who are taking a “snapshot” of the European coast where land and sea meet.

As The Irish Independent reports, the Traversing European Coastlines (TREC) involves both land and sea-based researchers undertaking simultaneous sampling.

The 36-metre schooner Tara is currently in Galway, working with a mobile laboratory for land work.

The 36-metre schooner Tara in Galway Port

Scientists can analyse samples even as they voyage across 46 different European regions extending from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia.

The baseline information on coastal ecology gathered will serve as an invaluable reference point to measure coastal climate change impacts.

Over 150 research teams from over 70 institutions in 29 European countries are involved, and the TREC project is being co-ordinated by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory( EMBL), working with local partners such as the Marine Institute in Galway.

The schooner, which is based in Lorient, France, is ice-strengthened to work in polar regions.

It is financed through a mixture of private and public funds with French designer Agnes B one of the main sponsors.

It has an “excellent chef”, but also everyone on board “gets to clean the toilets”, chief scientist Emmanuel Boss told the newspaper.

Chief scientist Emmanuel Boss(left) and captain Martin Hertau on board the French research schooner Tara in Galway Docks

“It doesn’t matter if you are chief scientist or captain of the boat – everyone has to do their chores as part of a roster,” he said.

“This makes for “far better relations” and no hierarchy, Boss said – “the relationship between crew and scientists is tighter than on any other boat I have been on,”he said.

The Marine Institute’s director of marine environment and food safety Joe Silke said the research being conducted “addresses crucial issues such as pollution, biodiversity loss, and invasive species, expanding on, and directly relevant to the Marine Institute’s work in Ireland's coastal habitats”.

The schooner, Tara, is open to the public today (Sunday, September 10th) in Galway docks from 10am to 6pm.

There is also a travelling exhibition, a reality game-based workshop and public workshops in the Galway City Museum and other venues next week.

Read The Irish Independent here

In recognition of the long career of RNLI coxswain John O’Donnell and the close relationship with the Aran Islands RNLI, last week the Galway RNLI crew presented a framed picture of the lifeboats from both stations to O’Donnell to mark his retirement.

Mike Swan, Galway RNLI lifeboat operations manager who made the presentation said: “The ties between the Galway and Aran Islands lifeboat stations go right back to the late ’90s when the Galway station was first operational.

“At that time some of the Aran RNLI crew were studying in Galway and living in the city during the week and as it wasn’t always possible for them to get back to Aran for their training exercises, they joined our crew for training.

“I’ve known John since before he joined the RNLI in 2003 and then when he became the coxswain for the Aran Islands lifeboat and I took up the role of lifeboat operations manager for Galway, our roles meant that over the years we were at meetings together with the coastguard and other emergency services, along with events and training at the RNLI bases in Dublin and Poole, England.”

Swan added: “The crews at both lifeboat stations have been on many joint rescues over the years. Although there is an imaginary line from Spiddal in Galway to Black Head in Co Clare that divides the area of Galway Bay that each station is responsible for, in reality — when there is a long rescue that requires all available resources or a search for a missing boat that has no last known location — the boundary becomes irrelevant and we work together as one crew.

“There have been many difficult nights on the water and challenging situations but when we look back on the 21 years that John was involved in the Aran Islands lifeboat, it is the friendships and camaraderie that we will remember.

“I was delighted to present a photo of our two lifeboats to John on behalf of the entire crew in Galway. In the photo you can see the Aran Islands all-weather lifeboat David Kirkaldy out on the bay with the Galway inshore lifeboat, Binny in the foreground.

“We wish John every happiness on his retirement from the RNLI and even though he will be as busy as ever, he won’t have to think about the pager going off at all hours any more.”

A group of young kayakers in Galway were treated to a scarce sight at the weekend when an angelshark surprised them for a brief swim-around.

Kayaking instructors Ronan Breathnach and Colm O’Loan from Galway Bay Sailing Club had the presence of mind to dip their camera into the water and capture footage of this rarely encountered fish in the waters off Rinville on Sunday (28 May).

“What a great day out for the group of 12 budding marine scientists of the future,” said the Marine Institute, who confirmed the sighting of one of the critically endangered marine wildlife species which is also one of the rarest sharks in Europe.

Angelsharks were once abundant over large areas of the Northeast Atlantic but pressure from commercial fishing—particularly bottom trawling—has been blamed for a significant decline in their numbers over the last century.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan was on hand in Galway on Friday (26 May) to officially open the new span adjacent to the Salmon Weir Bridge over the River Corrib.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the first sod was turned on the €3 million active travel project in April 2022.

The cycling and pedestrian bridge is the first new crossing of the Corrib in over 30 years and aims to take pressure off the existing narrow road bridge, which dates from 1818.

Galway Bay FM spoke to some of the first members of the public to use the new bridge and gauged their responses HERE.

The Galway Bay RNLI volunteer crew carried out a training exercise with the University of Galway Clinical Simulation and Interprofessional Education Facility this week.

The exercise took place on a calm evening and involved the lifeboat crew being called to a cruiser where a member of the lifeboat crew played the part of the casualty with a traumatic leg fracture.

A busy evening on Galway Bay – RNLI Galway’s inshore lifeboat ‘Binny’ and crew taking part in a trauma simulation exercise involving a casualty on a cruiser, with a visiting cruise ship in the background

Departing the lifeboat station at Galway Port, the crew on board the inshore lifeboat ‘Binny’, travelled to the cruiser where they came aboard, assessed and stabilised the ‘patient’ using their casualty care check cards. The crew were observed by Professor Aidan Devitt, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and Mr Mike Smith, Senior Technical Officer Skills and Simulation, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Galway. After returning to the lifeboat station, Mr Alan Hussey, Consultant Plastic Surgeon gave a briefing on managing burns and other traumatic injuries such as amputation or avulsion of limbs and digits.

Transferring the ‘patient’ to the lifeboat by stretcher as part of a trauma simulation exercise with the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Galway. From left: RNLI crew Stefanie Carr; Mike Smith, Senior Technical Officer Skills and Simulation; RNLI crew Seán Óg Leydon, Frank Leonard, Helm Dave Badger and Olivia Byrne.

The exercise also required the lifeboat crew to transfer the patient in a stretcher to the lifeboat. In a real-life situation, the lifeboat crew would have transported the casualty back to Galway Port for transfer to an ambulance.

Galway RNLI volunteer crew, from left: Frank Leonard, Stefanie Carr and Olivia Byrne assessing and stabilising a ‘patient’, Sean McLoughlin, who is also an RNLI crew member. The crew were observed by Professor Aidan Devitt, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and Mr Mike Smith, Senior Technical Officer Skills and Simulation, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Galway as part of a trauma simulation exercise

The simulation exercise was part of ongoing engagement between the University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the RNLI crew and had been arranged by Prof Dara Byrne, Professor of Simulation Education, University of Galway who said: ‘We are delighted to continue our work with the RNLI team and support them in their valuable work. The management of trauma and burns in the very early stages can improve patient outcomes so it is important to get it right. The expertise provided by the two surgeons today during the simulation will make a difference to both the crew and their casualties. The Simulation Team and I are looking forward to our next educational session with the crew and to working with them in the state-of-the-art Simulation Facility at the University of Galway.’

Olivia Byrne, volunteer RNLI crew, said: ‘On behalf of the entire crew, I’d like to thank Professor Byrne for arranging for the consultants from Galway University Hospitals to take part in this exercise this evening. In the event of a call-out that involves the rescue of a patient with a fracture, burn or other traumatic injury, the patient will be brought to hospital in Galway to be treated by these doctors and their teams. Getting their insights into how patients are treated for these injuries helps us to appreciate the relevance of our first aid training and the importance of doing training exercises to put our learning into practice.'

A memorial to several currach fishermen, which was vandalised last year, has been replaced with a new cut stone version at Galway’s Barna pier.

Relatives of the fishermen, William “Liam” Gill (78) and Peter Faherty (53), were so upset by the damage to the plaque that they commissioned a replacement.

Gill and Faherty, his son-in-law, drowned when their currach filled with herring sank an estimated 80 yards from the Barna shoreline in October 1922.

Both men had learned to swim, having served in the British Navy. Their third crew member, Michael (Michil Frank) Coyne, couldn’t swim, so Faherty helped rescue him, using the currach’s oars to support him towards the shore.

However, Gill was trapped in the nets, and Coyne swam back to save him and also got tangled in the gear. Neither of the two survived.

The late William Gill who died off Barna pier a century ago, photographed with his family

The Connacht Tribune of October 21st, 1922, reported that their bodies were found close to the currach about a mile east of the village at Léana.

“The remains of William Gill were placed in a coffin and those of Peter Faherty in a cart, and they were taken to Barna amidst every demonstration of regret,” the newspaper reported.

“Faherty had a wife and a family of seven, six girls and one boy, and much sympathy is extended to Mrs Faherty in her great loss,” it reported.

At the inquest, survivor Michael Coyne said that both of the two men kept a grip “on the canoe” - as the currach was called - all the time.

Peter Faherty, a former Royal Navy stoker, who drowned off Barna in 1922

“When I shoved myself away from the canoe, I was full sure myself that I was going down. I had the oars under the arm, and they kept up my head,” he said.

“The canoe would have drifted ashore only for the weight of the nets, some of which had fallen out of the boat,” he told the inquest.

Last year, a stone from the original pier, fitted with a plaque to the two fishermen, which was carved by Denis Goggin and Ray Flaherty, was damaged. The incident, which occurred less than a month after it was unveiled, was reported to the Garda, and CCTV footage captured in the area was sought as part of an investigation.

A new plaque has been fitted by stonemasons Peter and John Greaney, who are related to both men.

John (left) and Peter Greaney fitting the replacement plaque to the two fishermen at Barna pier Photo: Joe O'Shaughnessy

“Peter Faherty is our great grandfather, and William Gill is our great great grandfather,” Peter Greaney explained.

Galway historian Cormac Ó Comhraí gave the historical context when he spoke at the original unveiling. He recounted how the country was “so disturbed” by the Civil War that in the week that the two men drowned, it was also reported that the Clifden-Galway railway line had not run in three months.

Ó Comhraí said there were repeated warnings of famine in Connemara, and fishing was poor in Galway during that period – “a coincidence that many have affected the men’s judgment in October 1922”.

He said that William Gill, also known as Liam Rua or Liam Goill, was born at the time of the Great Famine, and the trauma of his early years would have increased his fear of the threat of famine.

When they caught a large quantity of herring, they would have been under pressure to land it all ashore.

After the men died, a fund was set up by clergymen to collect money for the two families. Among those who contributed was a large subscription from the people of Castlegar across the city.

Representatives from the City of Galway Shipping company visited Galway RNLI during their weekly training session, to present the charity with a donation of €5,000. The company, which has been in operation since 1947, is based a short distance from the Galway lifeboat station, at New Docks. This donation brings the amount raised for the charity in Galway this year, to €100,000, with a recent legacy and a donation from the Marine Institute.

Before the volunteer lifeboat crew went out on their training exercise, Galway Shipping’s General Manager Tom McElwain and board members John Coyle and Dr John Killeen met with Galway RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Mike Swan and some of the team based at the lifeboat station, to present the €5,000 donation.

The City of Galway Shipping Company has made the donation in support of the lifesaving work of the RNLI, which will next year be celebrating 200 years of search and rescue. The company’s board members are all successors of the founders and are admirers of the work of the lifeboats. John Coyle is also a former Chairperson of the RNLI’s Irish Council and Trustee of the RNLI, while Dr John Killeen is the current Chairperson of the Irish Council and a Trustee of the charity.

"This donation brings the amount raised for the charity in Galway this year, to €100,000"

Speaking at the cheque presentation, John Coyle said: ‘With Galway Shipping based a short distance from the lifeboat station, we have all seen first-hand, the volunteers launching, in all weathers and at all hours of the day and night, to rescue people. The lifeboat crew based here and at the stations around the country do a fantastic job, and the shareholders are proud to give this donation to the charity for their lifesaving work. With the RNLI celebrating its 200th anniversary next year, I hope there will be many such occasions in the future.’

Galway RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Mike Swan added: ‘We are delighted to receive this donation on behalf of the RNLI. The investment in our lifeboat, the kit our volunteers wear and the training everyone must undertake can be seen every time we launch. We have a great bunch of people who volunteer their time to help others. Behind the crew is a strong team that supports the lifesaving on the water. Our volunteers all work in different jobs in the community but are united in a common goal, to save lives. We are extremely grateful for the generosity of our donors that supports us in doing this.’

The month of May is the RNLI’s Mayday appeal. People can run, walk, hop or skip a mayday mile a day to raise funds for the lifeboat crews and help save lives at sea. See RNLI.org/Mayday for details.

Galway RNLI’s volunteer lifeboat crew welcomed Prof Dara Byrne, Philip Parakal Augusthinose and Mike Smith to the station last Thursday (13 April) to see first-hand how the RNLI station operates and how clinical simulation can enhance casualty care and first aid training.

The visit was part of ongoing engagement between the University of Galway’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and the RNLI crew.

Earlier this year volunteer crew member Olivia Byrne, who is also a nurse and helps deliver some of the first-aid training to her fellow crew members, spent a half day in the university’s Clinical Simulation and Interprofessional Education Facility putting skills learned into practice.

“The technology in use at the university for learning is incredible,” Olivia said. “I was able to practise resuscitation techniques on full-body manikins which were programmed to simulate the very specific conditions that casualties that we rescue are exposed to such as water and cold. The manikin reacted to treatment as close to a real-life patient experience as is possible.

“I was delighted to be able to show Prof Byrne and colleagues around our station and give them an insight into the work we do and how our training is used in practice.

“During their visit they met with the crew and were even able to see how we prepare for and launch our inshore lifeboat which was out on the water as part of our continual training and crew assessment.

“I look forward to further collaboration with the university and am very grateful for the expertise they shared, the time that they dedicated to our RNLI crew and for a very generous donation of medical supplies. There are only three simulation centres of this type in Ireland with the newest and most advanced here in Galway. We are very fortunate to be based so close to this incredible facility.”

Galway RNLI volunteer Olivia Byrne accepts a donation of medical supplies from Mike Smith, Philip Parakal Augusthinose and Prof Dara Byrne from the University of Galway Clinical Simulation and Interprofessional Education Facility during a recent visit to the Galway Lifeboat Station | Credit: University of Galway/Martina Regan

Prof Dara Byrne, Professor of Simulation in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences said: “We are delighted to support our friends and colleagues in the RNLI with simulation equipment and education. They are a dedicated and crucial part of the healthcare family providing essential emergency service and care.

“They work as a team and interface with other emergency services so simulation can support their technical and non-technical skill requirements as part of their training programme. We are excited to begin a series of trauma talks and other activities with them and will be seeing them in the interprofessional simulation facility soon. A very exciting collaboration for us all and one that recognises the value and importance of the RNLI team and the support that they provide for our community.”

Mike Swan, Galway RNLI lifeboat operations manager added: “Lifeboat volunteers need and deserve the very best training and equipment to keep them safe when they launch to a rescue. Crews don’t just learn boat-handling skills — they learn everything from navigation and engine repair to first aid and sea survival. We provide them with comprehensive training and recognised qualifications.

“Our mission is to save lives at sea and we can only do that with the support of our community here in Galway. The University of Galway is an important part of our community and we appreciate the valuable support of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.”

Galway RNLI’s volunteer lifeboat crew were requested to launch by the Irish Coast Guard at 9.35am on St Patrick’s Day (Friday 17 March) following a report of a swimmer in difficulty off Blackrock Diving Tower in Salthill.

The inshore lifeboat was quickly launched and proceeded immediately to the scene. The Galway Fire Service was also tasked and they assisted the swimmer ashore.

Weather conditions were good with a Force 3 southerly breeze.

Paul Carey, Galway RNLI deputy launching authority who was on scene at Salthill said: “A great outcome in this case. Two people were swimming together and one of them appeared to get disorientated. Thankfully the alarm was raised quickly.

“Always remember if you see somebody in difficulty dial 999 or 112 and ask for the coastguard. Always respect the water.”

The volunteer lifeboat crew on board the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat were helm Brian Niland, Dave Oliver, James Rattigan and Ian Claxton supported by shore crew Shane Austin, Dave McGrath and Mike Cummins.