A Dublin woman is critically ill and on a life-support machine after falling off a pier on a Mayo island early on Saturday morning.
Niamh McGrath, who was airlifted to Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, had travelled to Clare Island on Friday evening with a number of friends to celebrate her 37th birthday.
It is believed the group returned to their B&B from the island pub, where they had one drink, shortly after midnight and then decided to walk to the nearby Lighthouse Cove.
A spokesman for Malin Head Marine Rescue Centre confirmed it received an emergency call around 2am. The centre immediately requested the Achill Lifeboat to go to the scene and contacted a rescue helicopter, based at Dublin airport.
The centre declined to confirm the time of the helicopter's arrival at the accident scene. A local woman, providing aid at the scene, said the helicopter arrived at about 3.45am. There is a rescue helicopter based in Sligo but it is not permitted to fly between 7.30pm and 7.30am.
It has emerged that the group had sat on the pier for a short time singing songs before deciding to return to their B&B as it was quite cold.
As they left, Ms McGrath tripped and hit her head on rocks while falling approximately 20ft into the water. She lay for some time face down in the water before one of the group managed to pull her on to a ledge.
The B&B owner said: "I was awoken by one of the woman's friends who was in a very distressed condition. I immediately got some duvets and hot-water bottles and drove to the cove. The pier is largely disused, very slippery and in a bad state of repair."
The island nurse arrived on the scene soon afterwards.
After the lifeboat arrived, the crew including a doctor were landed by dinghy on to a ladder in the cove. They put the woman on a stretcher and placed it on rocks for the helicopter rescue. The helicopter was unable to effect the rescue from the rocks and airlifted her from a nearby field.
It is believed that Ms McGrath is an accomplished canoeist, mountaineer and first-aid expert.