Meet some of Ireland's homegrown heroes

While we are low on cattle-ranchers to lasso thieves we have no shortage of homegrown heroes, writes Rita de Brún

Cobh mother-of-13, Maria Foley, aged 44, who rescued three-year-old Caleb Watters when he fell into the River Lee near Brian Boru Bridge in Cork City last year

When going to the rescue of strangers, Good Samaritans don’t usually morph into modern day urban cowboys. But that’s what happened at a Walmart parking lot in June. A bike had been stolen and the owner, having chased the thief, was watching him getting away. Unwilling to watch and do nothing, a cattle-rancher jumped from his van, led a horse from his trailer and went galloping — Indiana Jones style — after the rogue.

The thunderous clatter of fast approaching hooves on cement and the terrifying whirr of a rotating lasso slicing menacingly through the air, alerted the hapless crook that his getaway was about to be terminated. When the Oregon cops arrived, the feet of the thief were bound neatly with the rescuer’s rope.