Pothole swimmer avoids getting into hot water with gardaí over dip

Gardaí say a pothole crusader has no case to answer following a complaint from a local authority that said he may have endangered public safety.

Liam Keane became an internet celebrity over Christmas when he togged off to jump into a water-filled pothole in North Cork.

His girlfriend, Stephanie Cronin, filmed the event and posted the video on YouTube, where it was viewed by 200,000 people.

The 22-year-old from Kanturk decided to go for a dip in the pothole near the village of Lismire after a friend of his posted a picture of it on Facebook.

Local people had put warning cones around the pothole before the county council arrived. A council crew then put up their own cones before they returned to fill in the hole.

After viewing the YouTube video, some council staff wrote to gardaí to express concerns that Mr Keane had removed the cones during the filming of his dip and thus could have endangered motorists, as the hole — which was caused by a burst water main — was several feet deep.

“I was at home in the yard and my sister said there was two gardaí who wanted to talk to me,” said Mr Keane. “I told them that I put the cones back immediately after the eight-second video was taken. I didn’t want to get anybody into trouble or see anybody get injured so I put them back straight away.”

The video was taken on Dec 30 and the cones remained in place until a county council crew repaired the hole 24 hours after the video was filmed.

Mr Keane said he was surprised that the county council would make a complaint to the gardaí, who, he said, have more important things to do.

“I wasn’t going to be so irresponsible as to leave the cones away from the hole after the film was taken,” he said.

“I have friends living near there and I wasn’t going to put any of them at risk. There was never any danger to traffic.”

A Garda spokesman confirmed that they had received a letter from Cork County Council which inferred Mr Keane might have endangered public safety.

“As a result, we carried out a thorough investigation and are happy to confirm that the young man in question has no case to answer,” he said.