Lifeboats called out to rescue 14 from island

A group of 14 people staying off the west coast on the island of Inishturk South had to be rescued by both Clifden RNLI lifeboats on Monday after they were stranded.

The group had been staying on the island for a couple of nights and were unable to leave as planned due to the severe weather conditions.

While there are a number of houses on the island, there are no permanent year round residents and as such there are no services.

It was therefore decided by Clifdn RNLI Launching Authority John Roberts that the best course of action was to launch the lifeboats to assist the group – rather than running the of risk smaller local boats attempting to do so in the ongoing rough weather.

Shortly before 10am on Monday, Clifden’s in shore lifeboat – the Atlantic 85 Joyce King helmed by Daniel Whelan – put two crew members ashore to escort people in small groups onto the lifeboat which then transferred them to the waiting Shannon Class All-Weather Lifeboat.

This was the fourth launch in three days for the Clifden RNLI volunteer crew. They had previously recovered a steel fishing boat that had foundered on the rocks after breaking its mooring – and they had also recovered two sailing boats that had gone ashore in the challenging weather conditions.

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