WEST Cork teenager Muireann O’Donnell and her dad, Aodh, have been chosen as the poster people for this year’s RNLI’s Christmas fundraising appeal.

Muireann was just 18 years old, which is the legal limit set by the RNLI, when she joined the Union Hall branch as shore crew earlier this year.

Now 19, she is busy doing all of the requisite training courses so she can join the boat crew, hopefully in the first quarter of 2026.

As it happens, Aodh, whose heroic efforts during the Tit Bonhomme tragedy in 2012 are a matter of record, is the local training officer but he, naturally enough, is debarred from conducting her assessments.

Muireann, like her sister Aoife, who has just turned 18 and is also poised to join Union Hall RNLI as shore crew, were ‘knee-high’ when Aodh first took them out on his boat.

‘They, and their older sister Grainne, were on the sea with me from the time they could walk,’ said Aodh.

He admits that his wife, Eileen, does worry about their youngest, and their determination to be part of this voluntary, life-saving crew, ‘but she knows we have the equipment and the best of training.’

Muireann said she is looking forward to Aoife signing up. ‘It will be great. We have been working together since we were kids. We’ve always been out on boats together.

‘I grew up on boats, and worked on the tug for dad, but the first search I remember was the Tit Bonhomme. That made me want to be part of a search and rescue crew.’

She said she has been warmly welcomed into the team to such an extent that she likened it to ‘one big family.’ Muireann also described her dad as ‘a brilliant role model.’

‘If only I could learn half of what he knows,’ she said. ‘I truly wouldn’t be the person I am today without him. I am so lucky to be able to learn from him and the other helms and crew at the station.’

Muireann said being an RNLI volunteer is rewarding. ‘It is being part of something bigger than you. It’s indescribable, but we do it for people, for families and friends.’

She believes it is an important job, vital even. ‘Someone has to do it and I’m happy to say that I am now one of those people.’

Aodh pointed out that the work done by shore crew is every bit as necessary as the onboard volunteers.

In fact, the lifeboat crew can’t go to sea without their ongoing assistance. It means that Muireann, like the other 20 volunteers, can be on call day or night, just like everyone else.

The teenage volunteer has already done her basic training as a member of the shore crew, but it will come as no surprise to people that she is already highly advanced in other areas.

Just like her dad, who is a founding member of the West Cork Underwater Search and Rescue unit, Muireann is already a qualified search and rescue diver and coxswain.

When Muireann is cleared to go to sea on the lifeboat, a whole new set of boat skills will have to be learned such as rope handling, going alongside, and towing.

‘Muireann loves the water. She is absolutely fantastic on it, and having her as part of the whole community of search and rescue is brilliant,’ her proud father stated.

Commenting on this year’s Christmas fundraising appeal, Aodh pointed out that RNLI lifeboats launch over 100 times during the Christmas period every year.

‘The RNLI is a charity and is reliant on the public to donate generously to make sure that we can do the job we are volunteering to do,’ he said.

‘Whatever the weather we have to be ready to leave their celebrations with friends and family to battle the elements and save lives at sea.’