RNLI volunteer swaps lifesaving on the Thames for Ireland’s wild Atlantic 

Baltimore Lifeboat Station's new recruit James Kitt

THIS Christmas more than 1,500 RNLI volunteers across Ireland will be on standby, ready to drop everything and leave loved ones behind to answer the call and help those in trouble at sea. 

Among them will be new recruit James Kitt, stationed at Baltimore Lifeboat Station in west Cork. For James and girlfriend Emma, the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns led to some soul searching about where they wanted to live and they decided to head to Emma’s native Cork as soon as the restrictions were lifted.