'I talked to my son about the Champions League as we clung on waiting to be rescued'
(Left to right) Harry Pritchard, Medical Adviser RNLI, Dr John Murphy, RNLI crew member Gary Heslin, Ciara O'Donovan. Lifeboat helm, Paddy Quinlan, Kate Horgan, Cillian Foster, Jamie Venner, Damien O'Donovan and Muruthi O'Donovan when they visited the lifeboat station in Crosshaven, Co. Cork, on Thursday. Picture: David Creedon
"I talked to him about the Champions League soccer game that night, about who would win, just to distract him, and keep him holding on."
A father who was swept out to sea with his son after being caught in a rip current has told how the pair clung on in the freezing water in Fountainstown for an hour before being saved.
Damien O’Donovan and his son Muruthi, then aged nine, were rescued in dramatic fashion almost four years ago. Paddy Quinlan, who runs the adventure centre Funkytown in Fountainstown and is an RNLI volunteeer, came to Muruthi's aid using his canoe.
Damien from Dunkettle was saved by a group of five teenagers shortly after his son. All of the teenagers have direct connections to the RNLI. Harry Pritchard, Jamie Venner, Richard McSweeney, Cillian Foster, and Kate Horgan had been fishing nearby when the Pan-Pan alert was activated. The group plucked Damien from danger and put him on to their rib.
In a quirk of fate, Jamie’s dad was at the helm of the Crosshaven RNLI boat that was deployed to the incident. Cillian is the brother of Crosshaven RNLI crew member Caoimhe Foster while Richard’s father Kieran is a former crew member of Baltimore RNLI.
Damien and Muruthi, now 13, were reunited this week with Paddy and some more of the RNLI crew at Crosshaven RNLI, where Damien recounted their dramatic rescue.
The nightmare unfolded in August 2020 when Damien and Muruthi were swept out to sea in Fountainstown. Passersby watched in desperation as the pair kept a determined grip on a lifebuoy for 60 minutes.
Muruthi had a lilo in his hands which his father was encouraging him to cling on to for dear life. Damien firmly believes the inflatable played a part in saving their lives.
“The current just caught me and dragged me out like a toy. Murithi still had the lilo from holidays. On the day we were rescued, he was just using it for running in and diving on like you would with a surfboard. We took it into the water with us so it wouldn’t blow away as it had been such a windy day. We still have it at home for sentimental reasons even though it’s no longer blown up.”
He describes clinging to the life buoy for 60 minutes.
Damien said:
I just tried to talk to Muruthi about the Champions League soccer that was on that night. We talked about who would win and went through the whole team and even the subs — anything to keep him distracted. At this point I was thinking that this might not work out the way we wanted it to. However, I knew that if he saw me panicking it was all over. Muruthi would have been moving around too much and that would have resulted in him losing his grip.”
Onlookers watching the drama unfold encouraged the father and son to cling on.
“People were calling out, telling me that help was only five minutes away. Had they told me it would be longer, I think I would have felt overcome by hopelessness. I was thinking at the time that if Muruthi lost his grip he could hold on to the lilo and aim towards the boat. Looking back I realise we had no power whatsoever. Our only chance was to stay holding on and play the waiting game until help arrived.”
He praised the RNI volunteer who came to Muruthi’s rescue.
“Paddy was putting his child to bed when he got the call and realised we were in trouble. He left the house and jumped on the bike with his oar. When he got out to us I was able to push my son up from the water and place him on the back of his canoe.”
After being plucked to safety by the teenagers, Damien said he was unable to think straight after the incident due to the shock.
“The paramedics had us wrapped in tinfoil to stop the heat escaping.
The father and son were oblivious to how concerned their family members were.
“My sister was watching the helicopter over Fountainstown when she realised that we hadn’t come back from the beach yet. She brought her son and my daughter up to the Cork University Hospital when she spoke to people and realised we matched the descriptions.”
Damien said he will always be grateful to those who saved him.
“I went into the RNLI in Crosshaven and dropped them in a bottle of whiskey. I told them I was going to get a bottle of whiskey for the people on the boat who saved me. They just laughed and told me they were underage so I asked if pints could be bought for their parents instead.”
He described their rescue as a community effort adding: “It was a joint effort that basically made for a happy ending. There are lots of cases of this happening to people who never get to walk away. Because of everyone involved we got to be the lucky ones.”
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