In force eight winds the crew of an RNLI lifeboat based on Achill Island, Co Mayo, responded to their first emergency call of the new year early yesterday when they helped bring a pregnant mother to hospital.
The woman, who is eight months pregnant, was brought at about 2am from Clare Island to Kildavnet pier on Achill Island from where she was taken by ambulance to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.
The expectant mother, who had not yet given birth, was said to be comfortable last night in the maternity wing of the hospital.
Sea conditions were rough at the time of the call-out with up to two-metre swells and a strong westerly force eight wind. "The journey took about half an hour in total and the woman was very calm throughout," Tommie Kilbane, coxswain of the Achill lifeboat, said yesterday.
Last month the Achill lifeboat had to bring emergency medicine to Clare Island when a doctor was unable to attend due to bad weather for eight days.