by Andrew Carey
Limerick’s fire and rescue service was scrambled to what turned out to be a “wooly call” on the River Shannon last Friday when a dark object was seen floating in the water near Steamboat Quay.
When the unit’s swift water swimmers were deployed the object turned out to be a black rubbish sack with a dead sheep floating alongside it.
The alarm was raised shortly before 11am when Gardaí and three tenders from the Fire and Rescue service were deployed to the Steamboat Quay/Docks area of the city .
The bag of rubbish had drifted downriver and eventually washed up near Barrington’s Pier adjacent to the Condell Road while the dead sheep floated along nearby.
There have been a number of emergency calls made to the fire and rescue service in recent times with members of the public reporting objects floating in the water and reports of people being seen entering the river.
However, the emergency services are anxious that a number of false alarms should not deter people from reporting suspected sightings.
Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan said that the public have been extremely helpful in giving prompt information regarding emergencies and their involvement can be vital in certain circumstances.
“Take the vigilance of University of Limerick student James Ryan who found a toddler taking a late night stroll last week. Without his quick action in alerting Gardaí, there might have been a very different outcome. The public play a key role in things like this no matter how insignificant they think something is, it is always better to contact us as it might just be difference” he said.
As for the sheep, it continued its journey down river while the rubbish was removed from the river and disposed of.
