Eight Gardai are being awarded with Scott medals for their bravery in the line of duty today.
Three of them will be awarded to deceased members at a ceremony in Dublin today attended by the Garda Commissioner and the Justice Minister.
2 Gold Medals (2 posthumously), 1 Silver Medals and 5 Bronze Medals (1 posthumously) will be awarded.
Inspector Joseph Finnegan and Sergeant Kieran Flynn will both receive a bronze scotts medal for the work they carried out during a sea cave rescue in Belderrig in 1997.
On the 25th October, near Lady’s Bay a group of people became trapped within a sea cave.
The services of the Garda Underwater Unit were sought to assist with the rescue. Rescue conditions were extremely dangerous due to the weather conditions, sea current conditions, wave surges through the length of the sea cave and the fact that it was night-time.
An initial rescue conducted by the Garda Underwater Unit which included Garda Joseph Finnegan and Garda Kieran Flynn had successfully rescued three survivors from the sea cave.
Following the rescue of the survivors, a daylight operation was launched to recover the bodies of two men who had not survived.
Conditions inside the cave had deteriorated with 15 and 20 foot waves crashing into the cave.
In full knowledge of the dangerous conditions, Garda Finnegan and Garda Flynn entered the water with a tow rope and large floating fenders.
Garda Finnegan and Flynn proceeding with great difficulty, succeeded in reaching the back of the cave at which point they were both washed up on the rocks by the heavy waves.
On the rocks at the back of the cave, they located the bodies of the two deceased men, secured the bodies of the two men to the tow rope and buoyed them using floating fenders. The two Gardaí guiding the bodies were carried out through the breaking surf to the water’s edge on a pre-arranged torch signal to the boat.
It was a difficult and dangerous operation, which took almost one and a half hours and called for seamanship, co-ordination and bravery of the highest order from those involved in treacherous conditions.
