Sound of the underground: Curiosity pushes cavers onwards despite risks

It took 10 rescue teams, about 300 volunteers, and 54 hours to bring George Linnane out of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu caves, Wales, after a fall

No one could save him, the man on the rock. Not the RNLI crew, not the Garda divers, not the hardy local fishermen of Co Mayo, not even the rescue helicopter crew hovering overhead. All were rendered helpless in the face of the seething currents that had sucked him into the back of an Atlantic sea cave. Clinging for his life to a jagged precipice, he was underground and out of reach.

But they were coming, the men and women who would eventually save him. Answering the call that evening on September 17, they drove from all over the country until they reached the north Mayo coast sometime after midnight. Working through the night and into the next day, they inched their way down the cliff face at Downpatrick Head, Spiderman-like, until they reached the man and pulled him to terra firma the following evening.