Junior life-saving classes

Junior Water Safety & Lifesaving Classes will be held in Naas on Saturdays in May and June, under the auspices of Water Safety Ireland Kildare.

The location is K Leisure Naas and the session times are 8.30am-9.10am and 9.15am-10am. They are suitable for children aged 7-13, who must be able to swim 25 metres unaided. The classes are run by WSI volunteers. Booking is available at this link. 

WSI  Kildare is a group of volunteers in County Kildare who offer extensive summer and winter programme of water safety classes and training. September to June classes are organised in swimming pools, developing skills in rescue, survival and resuscitation. An outdoor programme is offered during the summer months at the group's training centre on the shore of Blessington Lakes.

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Water safety reminder

While I, as many others do, appreciate the warm weather I don’t think teenagers are aware of the dangers of swimming in unsupervised stretches of the river Liffey, writes Helena Gibson. All too often we hear about drownings in the news. 

It mainly happens where children are not being monitored in water or the fact that people don’t know what to do or how to react in a situation where someone is drowning, whether adult or child.

I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before we hear of another drowning during the summer holidays. So please all, think twice before entering the water and please remember water safety. 

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Reminder of Liffey flood danger

Photo courtesy of Eugene Brennan.

With the Liffey flowing fast and high in recent days through Kilcullen, it is maybe a good idea to highlight the issue again in the interests of safety, writes Brian Byrne.

Eugene Brennan, who keeps an eye on such things, notes that recently flows from the Golden Falls dam at Ballymore Eustace have tipped up to as much as 38 cubic metres of water per second.

That's 38 tonnes of water each second. You can appreciate how difficult it would be to swim against that for either human or animal caught in the flow, which can rise very quickly. 

For comparison, the usual Liffey flow is around 1.5m3/s. "Most locals in Kilcullen will know about the rapid increases in water levels in the Liffey, but possibly new residents may not be as aware of this," Eugene says.

The present heavy flows are due to the release of water from the reservoir due to heavy rains in recent weeks. Floods during early autumn were due to works being carried out at the dam. According to Ballymore News Facebook page, the releases are generally at 8am and 5pm, which means the river is high for most of the time.

Picture at bridge with water not quite as high as it has been recently.

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'Thank you' for dogs rescue help

With the river being very high and fast flowing at the moment, due to ESB works at the dam, there's danger for people and animals.

Two dogs got into difficulty in Kilcullen last evening, and they were rescued by the owner with the help of a young man.

The owner, Sean McMahon, wants to say a huge 'thank you' to the lad who helped.

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Interfering with lifebelts isn't cool, dudes

Despite all the warnings about water safety, and the tragedies which have already occurred in recent times, someone thought it cool to interfere with this lifebelt in the Valley. It has been reported to the local water safety authorities.

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Swimmers enjoy the local Liffey banks, but warning on dangers

The super weather and the closure of the schools has brought out something in Kilcullen that hasn't really been seen for years — lots of young people swimming in the traditional river spots, writes Brian Byrne.

On the Riverside Manor bank, the old temporary wooden dock which had become dangerous was removed recently by some residents, and a level space cut out on the bank. It's now a good safe place to swim.

Across on the New Abbey side, the bank which for generations attracted Kilcullen swimmers young and old — in summers that seem to have been much better than in recent decades — has also been busy this week.

But local canoeist and countryside enthusiast Brendan O'Connell is a little concerned that the swimmers might not be aware of dangers.

"We used to swim much more in the river, because there were no swimming pools," he says. "It's great to see people back in the water again, but they may not be as aware of the dangerous places as we were."

The most important of these is on the bend just as the river swings by the Valley Park, where the scouring action results in a quite deep section along about 40 metres, along with some odd currents. "We always avoided it, it was quite dangerous unless you were a strong swimmer. You also need to be aware that a Poulaphuca flood came come down quite quickly."

That said, Brendan is very happy to see the river being part of the leisure facilities for today's residents. "Enjoy, and keep each other safe," he says. "And also respect the land and the owners, take home everything you bring out."

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Leo is Water Safety Ireland's Volunteer of the Year

Kilcullen resident Leo Mahon was recently given the award of Volunteer of the Year by Water Safety Ireland.

Leo is chairman of Water Safety Ireland — Kildare, and over the last four years has driven Water Safety Ireland's primary schools programme which has issued over 50,000 certificates over the last four years.

He also developed the first inland Water Safety Training venue at Blessington, Co Wicklow, which caters for over 50 trainees twice a week during the summer months. The facility also provides safety training to groups including rowing clubs and youth organisations.

In the past year Leo established an outreach programme with Scouting Ireland in Kildare, resulting in over 400 Beavers from 16 scout groups getting an introduction to water safety and basic safe training.

Leo is pictured above with Philip Keleghan, Water Safety Ireland-Kildare and WSI Council member; Minister for Rural & Community Development Michael Ring; and Martin O'Sullivan, Chairman Water Safety Ireland.

(Source: Water Safety Ireland.)

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