On June 25th, Clare coast guard volunteer Bernard Lucas, along with Cormac Coyne of Inis Oir and Eoin Keane from Kilfenora will set out to climb 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world.

The trio are making the ascent for the Caitriona Lucas Challenge, with funds going to the Burren Chernobyl Project. The challenge is named after Bernard’s late wife, Caitriona, who lost her life off the Clare coast on September 12th, 2016 - the first Irish Coast Guard volunteer to die while on a call-out.

Bernard spoke to Wavelengths this week about the climb, about the situation with Doolin Coast Guard where he and nine other volunteers were dismissed, and about many unanswered questions relating to Caitriona’s death.

Listen to Wavelengths below

Asked to respond to Bernard’s appeal for Minister of State for Transport Hildegarde Naughton to meet the Doolin Coast Guard unit, her department said that the Coast Guard is “currently fully engaged in the process of rebuilding the Doolin Unit, guided by the recommendations outlined in Kieran Mulvey’s report, issued on December 10th 2021.

“We can confirm that the selection of volunteers to provide service to the re-constituted unit on an interim basis as per the report recommendations was completed and those selected were informed,” it said.

Cormac Coyne (left) and Bernard Lucas, in training for the Caitriona Lucas Challenge to Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2022

“We can now confirm that management within the Coast Guard has commenced the process of recruitment to the Doolin Unit on a permanent basis. We can also confirm they have recently been in contact with all former volunteers in relation to this recruitment process,” the department said.

“The minister and the Coast Guard are fully engaged in this process and are very committed to ensuring Doolin Coast Guard Unit’s continued growth and renewal,” it continued.

“The minister meets with and engages with Coast Guard Unit volunteers on a regular basis and will also meet with Doolin Coast Guard Unit volunteers as part of this continuous engagement,” it said.

Details of the Caitriona Lucas Challenge to Mount Kilimanjaro are here

Caitriona and Bernard Lucas, Newfoundland, in October 2014

Minister of State for Transport, Hildegarde Naughton says she has asked the Irish Coast Guard (IRCG) to begin “reconstituting” the Doolin Coast Guard unit in Clare, after it was stood down from operations and training.

The unit was stood down on November 2nd after six resignations of volunteers, including that of the officer-in-charge.

Naughton said the decision was made following receipt of a report and recommendation from independent mediator Kieran Mulvey, which “has advised that certain relationships within the Doolin Coast Guard Unit have irretrievably broken down”.

Minister of State for Transport, Hildegarde Naughton

She said Mulvey also reported that “the mutual trust, respect and confidence required to effectively operate a Coast Guard unit does not exist within the [Doolin] unit”.

“The report concludes that the interpersonal difficulties are not capable of being resolved through the normal mediation process,”Naughton said in a statement.

In his 12-page report published today (Thursday, December 16th), Mulvey noted two OiCs had resigned from the Doolin unit in recent times and “there have been other resignations in the past”.

He said in discussions which all of the Doolin volunteers attended and engaged “covered many aspects of the operation of the unit, both currently and historically”.

Mediator Kieran Mulvey reported that “the mutual trust, respect and confidence required to effectively operate a Coast Guard unit does not exist within the [Doolin] unit”.

“Issues raised related primarily to the interactions with the Department/management of the Coast Guard Service, the lack of feedback from the Graphite [HR and employment law consultancy] and departmental interviews, the increasing constraints on the local operation of equipment and training opportunities within the unit, the restrictions on training/opportunities, particularly around the Cliffs of Moher, previous resignations, a previous dismissal, and equipment quality, storage and utilisation”.

“In summary, the volunteers were of the strong opinion the bureaucracy around procedures, form filling and increasing health and safety regulation was leading to “an adverse to risk culture in the service “rather than engaging with volunteers on the practical realities of search and rescue operations and their respective skills acquired, in some cases, of almost 30 plus years of volunteering in the immediate area of this part of West Clare”.

“Despite several efforts by me, the volunteers did not respond to my attempts to get an engagement on the identification of the interpersonal difficulties between them and which formed such a major and negative narrative in the Graphite HRM Report (Feb 2020),”Mulvey said in his report.

Mulvey’s main recommendation to the Department of Transport was that “the Minister and the Coast Guard Service should move with immediate effect to reconstitute the Doolin volunteer team”.

“ The Coast Guard Service should reinstate immediately those members of the unit who management believe can work and operate together in a collegiate and co-operative manner,”he said.

“It is of a vital necessity that this course of action should instil a new and positive culture of teamwork, professionalism and “esprit de corps” and which meets all the general/specific requirements of the Coast Guard Service as outlined in the Voluntary Services & Training Code Coast Guard Code,”he said .

“In accordance with the recommendations of Mr Mulvey’s report, members of the Doolin unit will be permanently stood down,”Naughton said.

“ The unit will be re-constituted in the short term by temporarily appointing volunteers who Coast Guard believe can work and operate together. This will address the situation presented by the absence of a functioning Doolin Coast Guard unit,” she said.

“A broader appointment process will commence in due course with the view to permanently restoring the Coast Guard unit in the Doolin area,”she added.

The junior transport minister said that she understood “this is a difficult decision and outcome for all concerned”.

“Inaction on the matter is not an option where there is a situation that a person may find themselves in trouble on or near the water into the future and require the assistance of a locally-based Coast Guard unit,” Naughton said.

“ The provision of a robust and fully operational Coast Guard Unit to the Doolin area is the priority,” she said.

“A number of further recommendations in the report will also be implemented including further engagement with volunteers and a review of procedures affecting the unit around training, operations, equipment and activities,” she said.

Naughton said she “supported the work of the Coast Guard Representative Group, the Coastal Unit Advisory Group (CUAG) which represents volunteers interests within the Coast Guard”.

“To enhance CUAG’s role as a representative body for volunteers, a review of CUAG’s existing terms of reference and grievance procedures within the Irish Coast Guard will be carried out,” she said.

The six resignations on November 1st had left the unit with just 11 members.

There had been mounting tensions within the Doolin unit after Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report into the death of one of its most experienced volunteers, Caitriona Lucas, in September 2016. She had been assisting the neighbouring Kilkee unit in a search for a missing man when their RIB capsized.

The subsequent MCIB was critical of safety management systems in the organisation – criticisms which the Irish Coast Guard rejected in a lengthy submission to the draft report.

The fifth anniversary of Ms Lucas’s death was remembered when an Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association (ICGVRA), involving her husband Bernard, was initiated in late October in Kilkee, Co Clare.

The ICGVRA comprises current and former volunteers, and is chaired by John O'Mahoney. It aims to represent the concerns of Irish Coast Guard volunteers.

John O'Mahoney, Chairman of the Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association

There have been reports of bullying and other issues in several Irish Coast Guard units, and late last month, Clare Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe called for an independent inquiry into the Coast Guard, and claimed there were “deep problems running from the higher echelons of management right down to each station”.

Crowe was speaking to The Clare Echo, after acting Irish Coast Guard director Eugene Clonan and Department of Transport assistant secretary-general Deirdre O’Keeffe appeared before an Oireachtas Transport Committee last month, and the Doolin issue was raised.

An Irish Coast Guard Volunteers Representative Association has been launched, five years on from the death of coastguard volunteer Caitríona Lucas.

“The Irish Coast Guard, it appears to me, is in a state of organisational rot,” Crowe told The Clare Echo.

He claimed that members of the Coast Guard are “afraid to raise issues in coastguard units or with Irish coastguard management for fear of retribution by way of disciplinary action”.

“This, simply, isn’t right and needs to be addressed by means of an independent inquiry into how the organisation’s central axis works – it’s clear to me that there are deep problems running from the higher echelons of management right down to each station around the country, and Doolin isn’t alone in experiencing this,” Crowe said..

Crowe had also said it was time to get the Doolin Coast Guard unit back up and running.

“All Doolin Coastguard volunteers live locally and are ready to respond within minutes. Other stakeholders, which are now expected to provide cover are too far away – the Kilkee Coast Guard Unit is 55 km away; the fire brigade based in Ennistymon is 18km away; the Civil Defence in Ennis is 32km away. Perhaps most worryingly of all, the Aran Island lifeboat, operating in average sea conditions, takes about 60 mins, including launch time to get from Inis Mór to Doolin. The average launch time at Doolin is 15 to 20 minutes,” Crowe said.

According to ferry operator Kevin O'Brien, there were no passengers on board at the time and the vessel got under way again when it was lifted from the rocks with the tide. Mr O'Brien added "this was a very minor incident and there was no damage to the ferry. Doolin is tidal so these things do happen. Even a few inches of water can make a difference".

The Irish Coast Guard was notified of the incident at midday, and its marine rescue co-ordination centre in Dublin requested that members of the local Coast Guard unit board the vessel to assess if there was a pollution risk.

Doolin Coast Guard personnel carried out an inspection and confirmed the ferry had not been damaged and there was no risk of pollution. At about 2.15pm the ferry got under way again with the tide. The company was able to operate services to and from the Aran Islands with its second vessel.