From the depths of despair – to an all-time high

Two sets of parents spent 15 hours gazing out to Galway Bay last Wednesday night through to Thursday morning, hoping that against all odds, that their daughters would return safely – and then the miracle they’d hoped for happened, when shortly before lunchtime on Thursday that the word came through that cousins Ellen Glynn (17) and Sara Feeney (23) had been found safe and sound.

Following months of Covid-19 misery, the news that these two young women were miraculously safe and found clinging to a lobster pot almost 20 miles out at sea captured the hearts of a nation that had waited in anticipation of a positive outcome when the story of their disappearance broke in the early hours of Thursday morning.

For their parents, Helen Feeney and Bernard Tong, and Deirdre and Johnny Glynn, the wait was agonising.

The pair were last seen on their paddle boards by Sara’s mother, Helen, sometime after 9pm as she walked the dog along Furbo Beach. A sudden wind took the pair out to sea and after Helen’s report to the authorities, news quickly began to filter through locally.

As it did, a huge search and rescue effort was instigated. As well as the RNLI, the Aran Island Lifeboat, the Irish Coast Guard and lifeboats from Oranmore/Maree, Cashla Bay and Doolin, there was what family members described as an “overwhelming response” from the community.

Those with boats mobilised them; there were people on-foot searching the coast line and the call even went out – and was heard – for anyone with binoculars to put them to use and train them on the Bay.

Read the full story over four pages in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in all shops now – or buy the digital edition; see full details elsewhere on this website.