Swept into darkness

Downpatrick Head in County Mayo commands some breathtaking views. Opposite its iconic Dún Briste sea stack there’s a ledge leading to three tidal caves. ‘They look pretty inviting,’ says Coxswain Francie Gibbons of Ballyglass RNLI. ‘But that’s the problem. People look in but don’t look over their shoulder. It’s easy to get washed in by a wave.’

That’s what happened one evening in September 2022 when a couple were swept off their feet in a strong surge. Luckily, the woman escaped and was rescued by nearby paddleboarders, but the man was forced into the back of a cave and had to take refuge on a ledge 50m inside, high above the surf.

A local Coast Guard unit was already on scene with their rigid inflatable boat and had made several attempts to get a line into the casualty. Entering the cave by boat was too risky and they were eventually stood down as darkness fell.

The gathered rescue agencies, including local gardaí, firefighters and Civil Defence, agreed that the best course of action was to send in the Irish Cave Rescue team when sea levels dropped. In the meantime, the man would have to sit tight.

‘That’s when we stepped in,’ says Francie. ‘We knew he was alive, but we couldn’t reach him and we couldn’t even talk with him over the noise of the surf or get a clear picture of whether he was injured or not. There was a risk he could succumb to hypothermia or even decide to swim for it if he thought he’d been abandoned. We had to stick with him.’

The lifeboat crew worked in shifts to keep in contact with the man through the night. Every half hour they moved into position, shone searchlights into the cave and asked him over the loudhailer for a sign he was OK. ‘We couldn’t hear him, but we knew he could hear us,’ says Francie. ‘That kept us going and probably helped to keep his spirits up. We reassured him there was a plan and that we weren’t going anywhere.’

It was a challenging watch, with little room for manoeuvre. ‘We had a relief crew on standby but we decided to stay put,’ says Francie. ‘Everyone did an outstanding job, whether that was sounding out the water depth, working the radio or checking in with the casualty. I don’t think anyone got much shuteye.’

At first light, the cave team began their descent of the cliff face, with the RNLI crew guiding them towards the cave mouth. Carefully drilling lines into the crumbling rock every metre or so, they continued their delicate task until around 3pm, when they finally managed to extract the man with a rope pulley. With sea levels now dropped, the man was guided safely back along the ledge and into a waiting Coast Guard helicopter which whisked him off to hospital. Despite his ordeal, he was in remarkably good spirits.

Francie says: ‘I am so proud of my crew mates for their actions over those 24 hours. We’d normally only spend such a long time away from home searching for someone out at sea, but this was different. We knew if we left the man, or didn’t keep in constant contact, he might lose hope. The work of all the agencies and the local community was incredible. It’s a callout we will remember for a long time.’

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