Photo by Alan Finn/Sligo Weekender
A young girl from Co Sligo has been praised for her bravery and quick thinking after she saved a teenage boy from drowning in the local river recently.
The girl now hailed a hero, Ruth Conlon Oates aged 14, saved the young boy when she was sunbathing with her two friends near the Ballisodare river.
Ruth came to the rescue after a group of boys they knew entered the water to cool down, when suddenly one of them Wayne Doyle also aged 14, suddenly got into difficulty. Hero Ruth told The Sligo Champion: “The boy was screaming for help and splashing the water. He was bobbing up and down. I just thought that I had to go in and try my best to get him out.”
“The other boys were in shallower parts of the river. They couldn’t go in to get him because they weren’t strong swimmers.” “The current was strong enough. I could touch the bottom if I was fully under. I was just trying to calm him and get him out. I got him from behind and just pushed him out by his back,” she said.
The quick thinking teenager further explained that she managed to get Wayne back to the river bank where she described him as “shook up but very grateful.”
After her heroics Ruth has become something of a national celebrity, however the modest girl said: “It’s sinking in slowly. People I don’t even know are congratulating me. Lots of people of all ages are coming up shaking my hand and saying ‘well done.”
The dramatic story, which was first broken by the Sligo Weekender, tells of how Ruth is a Mercy College student who is also a talented kick boxer and will compete for Sligo in the World Championships in Dublin later this week, has also advised other teens to avoid rivers, explaining: “I wouldn’t advise it. But if they are thinking of swimming in rivers, have parents there, have an adult watching you.”
Meanwhile Ruth’s proud mum Aine Conlon said “It was very frightening and traumatic for the two of them,” “It hasn’t hit home yet but we’re very proud of her.”