Since going on station on 27 March 1996 at 9pm, the volunteer crew at Galway RNLI Lifeboat Station have launched on rescues 816 times, coming to the aid of 498 people, of whom 74 were lives saved.
The origins of the lifeboat service in Galway began in the 1990s following a number of incidents on Galway Bay and campaigning by the local RNLI fundraising committee, with the support of the maritime community and other search and rescue agencies.
In April 1994 the RNLI announced that an Atlantic 21 lifeboat would be placed on a year’s evaluation in Galway. In October 1995 the first Galway volunteers went to the RNLI Inshore Lifeboat Centre in Cowes on the Isle of Wight for training and the following month the temporary lifeboat arrived in Galway. At that time the lifeboat was kept at the workplace of Pat Lavelle, one of the founding members of the RNLI in Galway and the first volunteer Lifeboat Operations Manager. From there the lifeboat was towed on a trailer to the Docks to launch.
Over the following number of years there were significant developments including the installation of a launching davit in 1996 (to enable the lifeboat to be moved in and out of the water) along with a temporary boathouse and a port-a-cabin for the crew. The current lifeboat station was purpose built in 1997 and the station’s first permanent lifeboat, an Atlantic 75 called Dóchas came on service. In 2011 Dóchas was replaced with the current lifeboat, an Atlantic 85 called Binny, which is 8.44m in length and has a top speed of 35 knots.
Paul Carey, Lifeboat Operations Manager with Galway RNLI who first became involved as volunteer crew in 1996 said: ‘The last 30 years of the lifeboat in Galway is due to the many people who gave their time and energy to fundraise to establish the RNLI service and who continue to support the running of the lifeboat service with generous donations and other support.
‘It has also been made possible by the many crew who have been willing to drop whatever they are doing day or night to respond when their pagers go off and each one has played a very important role in saving lives on Galway Bay.
‘The area covered by the Galway RNLI lifeboat and crew is the section of Galway Bay east of a line between Blackhead in County Clare and Spiddal, County Galway. Our crew is on call 24/7, 365 days a year and the average time from the call from the Coast Guard requesting us to launch, to the boat and crew being on the water is approximately 10 minutes day or night.
‘All of us here at Galway RNLI are volunteers, from all walks of life. There are 37 volunteers attached to the station and this includes the crew who go out to sea – the crew and helms (who ‘skipper’ the boat) – and the shore crew and support crew who make sure that the boat is maintained, crew are up to date with their training and casualty care (first aid) and other volunteer roles such as admin and fundraising.
‘We are very appreciative of the support from the community in Galway and beyond which has enabled us to reach this significant milestone and we look forward to the next 30 years and more of saving lives at sea.’
