A man has been airlifted to hospital after he collapsed while fishing with friends at the Blue Pool near Doonbeg this morning.
An ambulance and advanced paramedic rapid response vehicle responded to the scene along with the Kilkee unit of the Irish Coast Guard. The alarm was raised at around 9.30am.
The Shannon based Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, was also tasked to the incident.
The four men, all believed to be non-Irish nationals, had been fishing at the notoriously dangerous fishing spot when one collapsed in cardiac arrest.
Coast Guard volunteers helped the other fishermen up from the rocks while their friend, believed to be in his 50s, was airlifted to University Hospital Limerick.
Meanwhile, the Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat was called out to assist a family of five after their boat suffered engine failure yesterday.
The Dromineer based volunteer crew was alerted at around 6.40pm and requested by the Irish Coast Guard to launch. A 25ft cruiser, with five people on board, was reported to have lost power in Youghal Bay off Garrykennedy on the eastern shore of Lough Derg.
The lifeboat located the casualty vessel a few minutes after launching and found that the two adults and three children on board were safe and wearing their lifejackets. The skipper of the cruiser had dropped anchor to prevent his vessel from drifting.
The boat was found to have suffered engine failure and could not be restarted. The lifeboat took the cruiser under tow to Garrykennedy Harbour, where, at 7.13pm, it was safely tied alongside.
The lifeboat returned to station and was ready for service again at 7.33pm
Peter Kennedy, Deputy Launching Authority at Lough Derg RNLI, said: “The skipper did the correct thing to drop anchor and to call for help immediately, and especially with young children on board in this heat.”
Both operations were coordinated by staff at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue sub centre at Valentia in Kerry.