Quest for lost ring has happy ending

Date Published: 08-Jul-2010

By Darragh McDonagh

It seemed like the most unlikely quest for a ring since two little hobbits made their way across JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but one woman was undeterred in seeking the return of her precious in Galway last month.

A day at the beach turned sour for Antoinette Fitzgerald in Salthill two weeks ago when she discovered that she had lost her engagement ring on the expansive tracts of sea and sand at the popular tourist resort.

She retraced her steps and notified the Gardaí but watched in horror as the tide swept in and swallowed her last chances of recovering the precious jewellery.

Then she put a post up on Boards.ie and people immediately started coming up with ideas. She soon received a private message from John Lally from Knocknacarra, offering her a metal detector.

“It shows his good nature and the kindness of his heart that he got in touch and offered to lend his metal detector to a complete stranger,” she said.

“Myself and my husband went down to the beach at around 8pm on the Wednesday after I’d lost the ring and searched for about an hour with the metal detector but found nothing,” she said.

“A man from Cork who was walking the Prom asked us what we were looking for and volunteered to help, and the next thing was he was down on his hands and knees,” she said.

Miraculously, the 14-carat solitaire ring had defied the might of the sea and had not been swept from the shore in the two days that it was apart from its rightful owner. It emerged from the sand that they were sifting through to the delight of Ms Fitzgerald.

“It was the longest shot,” she said. “I think it was a mini-miracle. I really wasn’t thinking that I would find it but I just had to try.

Read more in this week’s Galway City Tribune