Swan happy family again as cygnets are freed

Date Published: 19-Jul-2010

By Frank Farragher

A FAMILY ordeal – during which eight offspring were separated from their father – proved to be a major sideshow for people on their way home from Sunday’s Arts Festival Parade.

The drama began to unfold on Sunday morning when Swan Rescue volunteers were contacted over the plight of eight cygnets and their mother cut off from their parents in the canal at the back of the Born shop.

They couldn’t get back upstream because of the different water levels at the weir and were also running short of their normal food supply.

Members of the Claddagh and Galway Swan Rescue group and Woodquay Wildlife Watch monitored the situation through the day and at around 6pm on Monday, two volunteers entered the canal and individually lifted the cygnets and their mother onto the higher water level.

Mark Stephens and Mark Tynan performed the rescue operation with a minimum of fuss, allowing the eight cygnets to happily swim upstream with their relieved mum and dad.

By the time the last cygnet had been lifted over the weir, the large crowd of onlookers that had gathered, burst into a spontaneous round of applause.

Mary Joyce Glynn, of Galway and Claddagh Swan Rescue, said that the reaction to Sunday’s events showed that the people of Galway ‘really love their swans’.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel