This article is from page 3 of the 2006-01-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE young man who tragically drowned after a kayak overturned in Lough Derg on Sunday had selflessly given the only lifejacket to his girlfriend.
The 26-year-old, who has been named locally as John Buckley from Ballyculhan in Glin, County Limerick, went for a trip on the lake with the 24-year old woman, who is from O’Briensbridge.
Their canoe capsized at around 2.30 in the afternoon and the couple struggled to make land but John was swept away.
The young woman was helped to shore by a man living close to the shoreline who heard her screams.
A rescue service source said that the young woman was suffering from exhaustion and hypothermia but had bravely made her way close to shore when the local man spotted her.
“He heard her and waded in to help her the last part to the shore. She was exhausted and cold but was wearing a life-jacket.
“They had just one life-jacket between them and her boyfriend gave it to her,” the source said.
The alarm was raised by a local person who saw two people in the water near Ogonnelloe, four miles north of Killaloe on the Clare side.
The Killaloe/Ballina Search and Rescue service was called out and they put three teams — a total of almost 20 people — out to help with the search for the missing man.
Divers from the Limerick Search and Rescue unit were also called in, as were Shannon-based coastgurad helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft from the Garda Air Support Unit.
The diving team was brought in towards evening as fading light made it difficult for rescue boats to see anything in the water.
The divers located the Glin man’s body at Two Mile Gate at around 9.15pm on Sunday night.
Rescuers said the couple had brought the canoe to the lake themselves and were not involved in water-based events which were taking place earlier in the day at the University of Limerick Activity Centre in Two Mile Gate.
Divers brought the body ashore and it was removed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, where a post-mortem was due to be carried out yesterday.
While the dead man’s name has not been officially released, he has been named locally as John Buckley.
The traumatised young woman was treated for shock and hypothermia.