A Gort resident has received a national bravery award for his role in rescuing a resident who was almost swept out to sea from the River Corrib in the city.

Criodán Ó Murchú had just got off a bus in Galway and was walking by the river on Friday evening, July 30, 2021, when he spotted a man in the water.

The current had taken hold of him, and he was being carried at speed down the river towards Wolfe Tone Bridge and the Claddagh basin.

Criodán called the emergency services and was warned not to go in the water. Onlookers were throwing life rings to the man, but it became clear that he was going to go under the bridge and into the sea where he would surely drown.

The 26-year-old former president of the Students Union at the University of Galway felt he had to act and entered the water near Wolfe Tone Bridge, swimming out to intercept the man before he was swept further out.

Struggling with the current until an onlooker flung them a lifebuoy, he held onto the man with one hand and the lifebuoy with the other and began to make for the shore. With the weight of the man and the speed of the current, it was not an easy task to keep them both afloat.

As Criodán tried to lift the man’s head above water, the drowning man appeared to come round and in a clearly distressed state he began to pull at his rescuer.

Criodán finally managed to bring him to the rocks at the edge of the river and restrained him there until emergency services could reach them.

The Gort native was awarded a silver medal and a Certificate of Bravery by Comhairle na Míre Gaile – the Deeds of Bravery Council – at a ceremony in Farmleigh House in Dublin. He is one of 133 recipients of the silver award since 1947.

Speaking afterwards, he said he was honoured to receive the award but would swap it in an instant if the resources and facilities for mental health patients were improved.

“My partner is a nurse but regardless I’m aware of the Trojan work that doctors and nurses do everyday. My partner has saved 100 times more people than me in the last few years,” he said.

“This situation did not need to happen, or at the very least more could have been done to prevent it. Our response to mental health seems entirely reactive rather than proactive.

“And that proactivity starts with things like ensuring affordable accommodation for all, a basic standard of living for all, and affordable accessible healthcare options for everyone.”

Criodán learned live saving skills in Mullingar where his family are originally from. He is Science Outreach Executive at Midlands Science and is a former director of the youth mental health group, Spunout.

He has since learned that the man he rescued has survived.

“He did make it, absolutely and his brother introduced himself to me at a protest in town one day and expressed his thanks to me.”

Pictured: Criodán Ó Murchú with his girlfriend Laura Collins, after he was awarded a Silver Medal and a Certificate of Bravery at the National Bravery Awards.