Mike Murphy
Dramatic Rescue Of Drowning Youth By
Legion Stalwart
Mike Murphy has been a member of our club all his life, and was
an outstanding footballer in his playing days. His career was
prematurely cut short due to serious injury; this was tragic for
both himself and the Legion because shrewd judges had him marked
down as one of the finest mid-fielders we had produced for many
years. As a Kerry minor, he starred for Killarney in the County
Final, but lost to Austin Stacks.
His
playing days over, he launched himself into the day to day running
of the club, training teams, attending meetings, raising funds
and at present he is one of the most active workers on our grounds
development committee. This, then, is a brief look at a Legion
man who decided to spend a nice restful day with his mother, wife
and family by the shore on a beautiful summer day last year.
Dundag bay is the most popular swimming area the Killarney Lakes,
nestling in the shadow of Torc mountain. It was, as usual, packed
with townspeople on this particular day. The country was sweltering
in fabulous heatwave and adults and children alike were splashing,
jumping, shouting and diving within safe distance of the shoreline.
It was in these idyllic surroundings that Mike and his kids were
happily building sandcastles, chatting and relaxing. But near-tragedy
was only minutes away. One young twelve year old boy, for reasons
only known to boys of this age, decided to swim straight out the
bay. Experts always swim parallel to the shore. Now of his depth,
he found himself in serious difficulties. His strength failing,
he slipped beneath the surface, but rising again he called out
for help and somehow above the din of the happy swimmers, someone
brought the word back to shore that a boy was drowning.
Togged
and ready for a dip himself, Mike Murphy, as he admits, without
thinking rushed to the waters edge and began the journey to the
young boy. Not a strong swimmer, he too was soon in deep water,
and the drowning youth had once again surfaced and face to face
he threw has arms around Mike, dragging him under. Struggling
beneath the surface, the awful truth struck - he too was in serious
difficulties. A split-second decision had to be made, save himself
and let the boy drown. Surfacing again, gasping for air, he pleaded
with the youth to stop struggling, which be did, This was the
turning point. Mike half-swam, half- splashed his way towards
shore dragging the youth with him. Now he too was weak and breathless
but the strong legs of the tall six foot Legion man thankfully
soon touched the sandy bottom of Dundag bay and near tragedy had
passed.
This
particular writer was present as both came ashore; the boy’s
extremities laps, nose, ears etc. were a deep blue and he was
coughing up a lot of water and in deep shock. Mike himself was
deathly pale and despite the burning sun shivering and cold and
even to the untrained eye, it was quite evident that he too had
undergone a terrifying experience.
The
young lad returned to his grateful parents. Mike returned to his
family and life on the lakeshore continued as if nothing had happened.
Mike Murphy did not ask that this heroic rescue drama be included
in our newsletter. He did not receive awards or publicity of any
description - that is the nature of our clubmate.
Nevertheless,
let there be no doubt a terrible tragedy was averted under Torc
mountain that day and Mike Murphy stands in the unique position
of having saved the life of another human being at the risk of
losing his own. All in the Legion are proud of this achievement
and at is only right that his dramatic rescue of the young boy
be documented for future generations our club.
Mike Murphy
