#Rescue - A 15-year-old girl who was one of two teens rescued of Hook Head yesterday (Sunday 6 December) was unconscious when she was taken out of the water, it has emerged.

As RTÉ News reports, the girl is one of four from a Dublin scouts group who were washed into the sea from the rocks by a surprise wave as the remnants of Storm Desmond passed over Ireland.

Two managed to swim to shore, but the others – the girl and a 15-year-old boy – got into difficulty in what the Irish Coast Guard described as "confused" heavy seas.

As of this morning (Monday 7 December) the girl was said to be in a critical condition at University Hospital Waterford. RTÉ News has more on the story HERE.

#Rescue - Two Irish Coast Guard helicopters battled Storm Desmond to evacuate a crewman from a container ship off the southwest coast yesterday (Friday 4 December).

As UTV News reports, Rescue 117 from Waterford was joined by Rescue 115 from Shannon in the medevac some 160km west of Fastnet Rock at the Swedish-registered MV Atlantic Cartier, where the long-range-specialist Sikorsky S-92 helicopters faced strong gales and heavy seas.

According to TheJournal.ie, the ill crewman, who was reporting chest pains, was airlifted to Cork Airport where he was transferred to an ambulance.

It marks the latest rescue operation for the coastguard helicopter network in a busy 2015, which has seen a record year for Sligo's Rescue 118 in particular.

#Rescue - Kayakers paddled to the rescue of a man in his 60s spotted floating in the sea off Co Clare on Saturday morning (31 October).

According to The Irish Times, the man – thought to have fallen into the water from Seafield Pier near Quilty – was semi-conscious when he was retrieved by the kayakers.

The casualty was subsequently airlifted to hospital by the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 115, which was on a training exercise nearby.

The incident occurred just days after the body of local man Stephen Mungovan was recovered from the sea after what's believed to be an accidental fall late last Sunday night (25 October).

The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.

#Rescue - A woman is in stable condition in hospital after she was rescued from a sea cliff in Islandmagee on Tuesday (27 October) an operation that "wasn’t straightforward", as the News Letter reports.

It's believed the woman had been walking along the top coastal path when she got into difficulty late on Tuesday evening.

She was airlifted from the site by helicopter tasked from Scotland after being stabilised by paramedics.

The incident comes just weeks after emergency services rushed to the aid of an elderly man who fainted on the newly reopened Gobbins cliff walk in the same area.

The new cliff path has been hailed by the Guardian as "a reboot of a magnificent feat of engineering that originally opened in 1902", with local musical hero Michael Bradley of the Undertones writing about its heart-stopping mix of beauty and danger.

#Rescue - The Connacht Tribune reports that 10 were rescued from a twin-mast sailing boat on Lough Corrib last night after the vessel hit rocks near the village of Cong in Co Mayo.

All 10 people on board, including four adults and six children, were brought to safety by the local Corrib/Mask rescue team, according to the Connacht Telegraph.

This US Coast Guard video shows the stricken sailor riding several waves before jumping head first over the railing of a rescue ship. The yachtsman's dramatic leap, with his cat, to safety from his disabled yacht was made some 400 miles south of Cold Bay, Alaska. 

#RNLI - Enniskillen RNLI rescued two people on Sunday evening (27 September) after a kayak was reported to have capsized at the mouth of the Colebrook River.

The volunteer lifeboat crew based on Upper Lough Erne at Carrybridge were requested by Belfast Coastguard to launch both their inshore lifeboat and rescue water craft (RWC) at 5.52pm.

The man and woman who came off the kayak had managed to swim ashore, raise the alarm using their mobile phone and let the coastguard know they were on an island.

The inshore lifeboat, helmed by Chris Cathcart, launched immediately along with the RWC. Weather conditions at the time were described as good with light airs and good visibility.

Following a search, the lifeboat crew located the casualties on the northern side of Inishcorkish Island. They were both cold and the woman was shaking and showing signs of hypothermia.

The crew immediately transferred both people to the lifeboat and began to administer casualty care. They were then brought to the shore at Knockninny Marina where they were medically assessed and made comfortable. The RWC then recovered the vessel back to Knockninny Marina.

Speaking following the callout, Enniskillen RNLI helm Chris Cathcart said: "The water was cold yesterday and the casualties had been in the lough for about 15 minutes during their swim to the island.

"They had prepared for their trip by carrying a means of communication and thankfully they were able to raise the alarm using their mobile phone. We wish them both a speedy recovery from their ordeal."

As reported on Afloat.ie earlier today, HM Coastguard is co-ordinating an ongoing search for an overdue sea kayaker off Portmuck in Co Antrim, concentrating on the area around the Gobbins coastal path.

#Coastguard - Howth Coast Guard responded to two separate cliff rescue incidents within an hour of each other yesterday afternoon (Sunday 27 September).

The first call was at 4pm to a man who had slipped 10 metres while descending to the rocks at Balscaden to go shore fishing.

Coastguard volunteers arrived quickly and an EMT from the team administered medical care until the arrival of the paramedic from the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

The fisherman's colleague was taken by the Howth RNLI lifeboat to Howth Harbour while he himself, with serious head injuries, was winched aboard the helicopter and taken to Beaumont.

A crew from Howth Coast Guard, along with the assistance of local Gardaí, secured the landing site and assisted with the transfer of the casualty to a waiting ambulance.

Meanwhile, at 5pm a call came in for a tourist trapped 25 meters up a 40-meter cliff at Whitewater Brook near the Baily lighthouse.

The team in Howth were closing down from the previous call at the station and were dispatched to the scene by the IRCG operations centre.

A rope cliff rescue was set up and a rescue climber got to the casualty, who was a tourist that got confused on returning from a beach below and found himself unable to ascend or descend from a steep cliff face.

The tourist was secured and brought to safety by the team, and no further medical care was required.

#MedRescue - Irish Naval Service personnel came to the rescue of around 380 migrants across three operations in the Mediterranean on Friday (18 September), as the Irish Examiner reports.

The responses off the Libyan coast – which included the rescue of 124 and 127 people respectively from inflatable craft, and saving 129 from a sinking dinghy – bring the LÉ Niamh's total rescued to 3,723.

That tops the number saved by sister ship the LÉ Eithne, which returned from its nine-week deployment in July.

#Rescue - Three teenagers were rescued by Limerick emergency services on Friday night (11 September) as their boat drifted out of the city along the River Shannon, as BreakingNews.ie reports.

The small fishing boat has experienced engine trouble and run out of fuel, leaving the three on board adrift till they were retrieved and their boat towed to safety.

It was the second callout to the river on Friday for the Limerick City Fire and Rescue Service, after a man fell into the river from Sarsfield Bridge in the early hours.

BreakingNews.ie has more on the story HERE.