Arranmore native Phil Boyle had been holidaying with his family in southern Spain when he spotted a man struggling in the water. Phil bravely jumped in and saved the man upon noticing that no lifeguards were in sight; despite the many lifeguard towers dotted along the beach.
He describes it as “being in the right place at the right time”, and switching to auto-pilot.
Phil is from a lineage of brave RNLI members, with his grandfather being involved in the rescue of eighteen sailors in the 1940 grounding of the S.S. Stolwijk.
The man he rescued was in his late sixties and appeared to get into trouble when he panicked after falling from his lilo.
The following day someone was not so lucky in the same stretch of the beach and perished despite the fact that the beach was meant to be patrolled by lifeguards.
When on holiday in Spain two months ago, Phil decided to go for a run along the beach. While on his run, he observed dozens of lifeguards on duty. After five kilometers he realised that he had no money to buy water from one of the vendors. Thirsty, he began jogging back to his wife to get money.
As he approached his wife by the shore front he noticed that she was speaking with a group of women who were very visibly flustered.
Phil describes how he got a gut-feeling that something wasn’t right, but thought it was unusual that no one else in the area seemed to be panicking.
As Phil got closer to the group it became apparent that something was very wrong; one of the ladies was trying desperately to find a lifeguard and was shouting “my dad is drowning!”
“It was very surreal. Everything slowed down. I asked the daughter which one was her father as there was 70 – 100 people in the water so I couldn’t clearly see where he was. I just knew I had to do something”.
“I took off my watch but somehow forgot to take off my sunglasses and runners!”
As he swam out to the English tourist’s assistance, it became apparent that he had fallen off a lilo and had completely panicked. The man was about 30 meters out from the shore.
When he reached the panicked man, he grabbed him under the arm and began pulling him back towards the shore. “The current and swell of the water helped me a lot. When we got in closer to shore a man from Dublin grabbed him under the other arm and we had to carry him to shore as he couldn’t stand. He had coughed up some water at this stage but was still in extreme shock.”
Phil, who had worked as a lifeguard twenty years ago, knew to put the shocked man in the recovery position.
The man’s wife and daughters were crying with relief, and Phil’s family were also shaken as they had just witnessed the harrowing scene of a man narrowly escaping a brush with death.
Phil explained that the RNLI is in his blood as both his grandfather and father were heavily involved in the lifesaving organisation.
His grandfather, also an Arranmore man, bravely put his life on the line to save sailors aboard the S.S. Stolwijk when the vessel ran aground in hurricane force winds in the early hours of December 7th 1940.
The brave crew who saved eighteen sailors on the S.S. Stolwijk
Eighteen men were saved by the Arranmore lifeboat crew. The crew were given gold medals by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to express the country’s gratitude to the brave Donegal men.
Jerry Early penned the poignant song ‘I’ll Go’ for the brave crew who went out to sea on that fateful night when they knew there was a chance they might not return.
“I’m not a brave person. I’m scared of my own shadow! The true heroes are the brave men and women in the RNLI. The firefighters who run into burning buildings to save people. The doctors and nurses that save lives every day. I’m a big scaredy-cat! I was just at the right place at the right time. I acted on auto-pilot”.
“There are so many variables; I was twenty seconds faster on my jog back to my wife than I was when I first went out, I don’t know if that could have made a difference. What if I had money for water and didn’t have to run back to my wife? I couldn’t understand why there was no lifeguard in sight.”
The man’s wife and daughters thanked Phil’s family profusely as Phil tended to the man.
“I wouldn’t recognise the man today, and he certainly wouldn’t recognise me as he was in shock.”
His family praised his actions afterwards, with his young nephew hailing him a hero.
‘While putting sun cream on my daughter afterwards, she brought me back down to earth by saying “you got sand in the sun cream you donkey”!’
by Elaine McCallig
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