Two men came to the rescue of a man who fell into Dublin’s Royal Canal last week and then left the scene without any thanks for their exploits.
A woman named Catherine said she was walking along a stretch of the canal on the north side of the capital around 4 p.m. last Wednesday when she saw a young man lower another by the arm into the water.
Catherine said she was shocked by their actions because that particular stretch of the canal, in Phibsborough, is “deep” and the man was lowered several meters to the water’s edge.
Amazingly, she said that the young man hovering just above the water sank into it and pulled a third man up by his collar, eventually landing back on dry land.
“He reached in twice, first he didn’t find the man underwater and the second time he found him and pulled him up. It was the grace of God and they managed to get him out of the way,” she told RTÉ’s live line program.
Catherine said she later learned that two young heroes were named Mark and Gavin and that it was Mark who pulled the third man out of the water. She called an ambulance for help.
She said the man who initially entered the water appeared to be having a “seizure” and she suspected he suffered “very serious cuts” to his knees and elbow before falling in.
Catherine said the injured man was “very, very cold” and “struck deeply” by the water, and it was the “speed of Gavin and Mark that saved him”.
As they waited for the ambulance to arrive, local residents threw down pillows, blankets and comforters to help the quick-thinking rescuers.
Catherine described the man who entered the water as a “very gentle fellow” and said “all he could say was thank you”.
Much to her surprise, she later found out that Gavin and Mark didn’t even know each other, and they didn’t want any special recognition for their actions.
“They were like professional rescuers,” she said.
“I think it was a miracle, really, and I felt so relieved when he started talking to us and told us where he was from and a little bit about himself. It was such a relief that he was fine .
“She [Mark and Gavin] turned off and they didn’t want a thank you from anyone, they were just nice guys and I just yelled ‘thank you so much’.”