Achill Island RNLI welcomes Orlagh Blake-Dillon to new role as Visits Officer

Orlagh will facilitate organised group visits to the station to highlight water safety awareness and to outline what happens at the station during and between call outs.

Orlagh and her husband, Francis who also helps out with the station’s fundraising branch, both joined the Achill Island RNLI lifeboat crew as trainees in March 2024 following their move from Dublin to Achill Island. They wanted to build a strong community connection following their move, and having heard about the local lifeboat station from other volunteers at the station, joining the team there was high on their list of priorities.

Orlagh and Francis both excelled in the various aspects of their crew training, and having successfully completed all of their assessments, they received their pagers last November and are available for call outs on the station’s all-weather Trent class lifeboat. Orlagh has very much immersed herself in the RNLI experience – she also joined the station’s water safety team alongside fellow volunteers, Seamus Butler and Ann Lavelle - and she was delighted to add the role of Visits Officer to her list of RNLI expertise earlier this month.

Speaking about her new role as Visits Officer, Orlagh said: 'With summer just around the corner, it is important that people are water safety aware. According to the RNLI, over half of the people who drown at our coasts never intended to be in the water. That means they entered the water unexpectedly or by accident, and didn’t get to make it home safely to their loved ones.'

Orlagh said that even the most experienced water enthusiasts find themselves in difficulty at times. She added: 'No one goes to our coasts or waterways with the intention of needing to be rescued, but accidents can happen sometimes despite the best plans and preparations. If you are planning on being on or in the water, the advice is to check the weather and sea conditions, let someone know what your plans are and when you expect to return and always carry a means of calling for help. If you find yourself in difficulty on or near the water, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard. Our lifeboat crew will be happy to launch to assist if requested to do so. It’s what we do.'

Visitors to Achill Island RNLI lifeboat station at Kildownet will avail of a meet and greet, a safety briefing and find out how calls for help are received and managed by those at the station. Groups will get a tour of the station, see the crew room where crew kit is stored ready for use, as well as the wet room and the boat house, where the station’s special boarding boat and tractor are safely stored. The boarding boat, launched by the tractor, is used to get crew to and from the station’s all-weather lifeboat, Sam and Ada Moody, which can launch in all weather conditions, day and night, 365 days a year, with her volunteer crew.

The lifeboat is idyllically moored under the watchful gaze of Grainne Uaile’s castle, and crew use their special boarding boat to get to and from the lifeboat for training and call outs. Orlagh, who works as a receptionist at Hotel Newport, continued: 'As a charity, the RNLI relies entirely on donations from the public, so it is really important that people can see where their generous donations go and what they are used for. We are happy to facilitate visits for any group, and we can tailor the visit to suit the needs of different groups.' A visit to Achill Island RNLI can be organised by emailing Orlagh at [email protected].

Ciaran Needham, Achill Island RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager said: 'We are delighted that Orlagh has taken up the role of Visits Officer at our station. All of our volunteers, whether they are lifeboat crew or shore-based, play a vital role in saving lives at sea. If we can manage to save just one life by promoting water safety awareness through these visits facilitated by Orlagh, we will be very happy indeed.'

Speaking about the possibility of volunteering at the station, Ciaran said: 'We have recently welcomed some new trainee crew to our team which is fantastic, and there are a variety of roles within the crew that volunteers can become trained in, including coxswain, mechanic and navigator, to name just a few. Individuals can approach myself or any volunteer at the station if they wished to become involved. We would welcome anyone with an interest in joining our RNLI family to our team.'

Ends

RNLI media contacts

For more information, please contact Eilish Power, Achill Island RNLI Lifeboat Press Officer at [email protected] or Nuala McAloon, RNLI Regional Communications Manager on 087 648 3547 or email [email protected] or Niamh Stephenson, RNLI Regional Communications Lead on 087 1254 124 or [email protected] or Treasa Ni Bhraonain, RNLI Communications Placement on 0874764436 or [email protected].

Key facts about the RNLI

The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.

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