Daring beach rescue earns Athlone woman top award

An Athlone native has been recognised with a prestigious award for her courage and bravery during a heroic rescue of a young boy from the sea in Kerry last year. Anne Kiely, nee Mullin, who originally hails from Montree, Athlone was given the Michael Heffernan Medal for Marine Gallantry at the 4th Marine Meritorious Awards in Dublin Castle last Friday, in recognition of her courageous actions saving the youngster from drowning near Ballybunion and helping bringing another child and an adult to safety last July. Presenting the prestigious award, The Minister of State at the Department for Transport, Noel Ahern lauded her 'courage and bravery in the rescue and the saving of the life of two children and and an adult in distress at Beale Beach'. The 32-year-old mother of four, who is profoundly deaf was alerted to the danger on July 30 2007 when when a woman asked to borrow her phone to call the emergency services after three people got in to difficulty in the water at Beale Beach near Ballybunion. On realising the situation, Anne told her niece to look after the children and she ran down to the shore where there were a number of adults screaming and shouting. In the distance, at least 40 feet from the shore, were three stricken swimmers. She ran into the water and started swimming out, she got to chest level and met two men bringing the first swimmer, in to shore. She kept on swimming, at this stage out of her depth and got to the second swimmer, who was struggling to stay afloat. After calming him down and getting him to kick to the shore the brave Athlone woman swam out to the young boy, who was by now in serious difficulty 'Although Anne is a strong swimmer and reasonably fit, she felt her legs go to rubber and the strength just leave her. The boy panicked and pulled Anne under, she managed to twist out of his grip and get him under the arm again. She kept kicking for shore and hoping she could just put her foot down. Eventually, she reached the woman standing up to her neck in water and both women hauled him in,' her husband Christopher said. By that stage, Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue had been alerted and were running into the water by the time Anne had brought the boy to safety. He was taken to Kerry General by helicopter as a precaution and the adult and other child were treated at the beach. 'My wife is a hero, she risked her own life. People don"t realise how close she came to losing her life, she acted completely selflessly and I firmly believe Patrick Burke would not be alive today if it wasn"t for my wife. She didn"t hesitate, just jumped right in and I am so, so proud of her,' her proud husband said the award application nominating her for the awards, adding that Beale Beach is an incredibly dangerous beach with some of the fastest water currents in Europe. Anne Kiely, who now lives in Tarbert, Co Kerry is the daughter of Patsy and Maureen Mullin, Montree. She went to school in the Bower and graduated from NUI Maynooth with a BSc and HDipIT. She is a stay at home mother of four. The Marine Meritorious Award Scheme provides a formal system for the granting of Marine Awards, Testimonials or Certificates of Honour that recognise acts of marine bravery or of outstanding merit. The scheme acts as a form of recognition or the making of a statement honouring marine meritorious service or outstanding marine gallantry or achievement for search and rescue. A total of 55 awards were presented by Minister Ahern last week in Dublin.