THE end of a generational era has come to Courtmacsherry as RNLI veteran Brian O’Dwyer retires after nearly three decades with the organisation.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Brian diligently served the village’s 200-year-old station for 28 years, 18 of them as Lifeboat Operations Manager.

His father was the Honorary Secretary of the station during his childhood, and Brian assisted in his first rescue at 17 years old.

The lifeboat veteran’s career took him away from the sea for a while, as he attended college in Kilkenny and Dublin, and then worked in Kerry in horticulture.

But Brian returned to Courtmacsherry in 1995 and, the following year, he was asked to join the station and tasked with responding to distress calls, and ensuring a safe launch of the lifeboat.

Courtmacsherry’s history has been entwined with that of the RNLI. The coastal West Cork village had its station set up in 1825, just one year after the establishment of the RNLI. 

There’s no denying the special connection that the village and the station share. The crew has a waiting list to join thanks to the number of volunteers signing up. Brian remarked that Courtmacsherry has ‘a great spirit. There’s a great energy in the team that are involved, and its lovely to work with that.’

Brian with crew members Tom Kelly and coxswain Ken Cashman

The RNLI crew often faces treacherous and dangerous weather conditions. Although the Launch Authority stays back at the station, the mood during rescues is often tense.

Brian recalled a particularly dangerous rescue that he authorised in 1998. A yacht called the Supertaffe got caught in a storm off of the bay of Kinsale and capsized.

‘I can remember the bay that day,’ he said. ‘[The weather] was absolutely terrible. It was as bad as I have ever seen it in my lifetime, and I couldn’t believe there was any boat out at that time.’

Oil rigs near the boat measured waves of 11m/44ft in height that evening. Extraction of the yacht crew by helicopter was deemed impossible, and so the station’s lifeboat, the Frederick Storey Cockburn, was launched. 

All crew were safely rescued and returned to Courtmacsherry Harbour, and Brian’s brother Dan received a Bronze Medal for exceptional services to the RNLI.

Many rescues don’t end up making the headlines. Brian recounted an instance where the lifeboat was called out to a small speedboat in distress. It was foggy, misty and visibility was poor. When the team arrived at the boat, it had nearly sunk. It was full of water, and three adults and two children were on board with no life jackets.

According to Brian, the timing of the rescue was absolutely crucial: ‘If they had been another six miles away, the boat would have gone down fully. They were so lucky.’

Unfortunately, not all of Brian’s stories have a happy ending. He recalled the devastating search and rescue attempts at the Tit Bonhomme in Union Hall in 2012. Courtmacsherry RNLI assisted the Union Hall lifeboat along with teams from all other West Cork stations. One crew member was saved but five lives were lost when the trawler sank in Glandore Harbour. Brian recalled it was ‘a very sad occasion’.

The ill-fated Tit Bonhomme which sank with just one survivor in Glandore Harbour

‘I can remember I got that call at about six o’clock in the morning. It was a very bad night, the wind was blowing a south-easterly gale and I got a call from Valencia and they were alerted through an EIPERB, which comes off a boat that has sank, so it was a potentially serious situation. 

‘It wasn’t strictly our area but, in the circumstances, I said 'look, we’ll go because there’s a boat gone’.’

In 2008, on the retirement of Gerry Turner, Brian became the Lifeboat Operations Manager (LOM). The LOM is responsible for the management of the station and its crew, as well as ensuring the that the lifeboat is serviceable and available

The service of Courtmacsherry RNLI has touched not just locals, but also reaches people from all over the world. Brian remembers a particularly poignant episode when a woman from Belgium visited the station to put to rest the loss of her brother. He had died in a swimming accident in Inchydoney 50 years prior, and Courtmacsherry RNLI assisted in the search for his body, which was never found. 

The family visited Ireland to get their loved one’s death certificate, and to remember their devastating loss. When the Belgian woman visited the station, Brian remembers it as ‘a really, really lovely moment.

‘It was so important to her,’ he continued, ‘and it’s occasions like that that give you more energy to do what you do.’

A lot has changed since Brian’s father’s time with the lifeboat station. The organisation has adapted and the modern boats are more comfortable and faster to launch. Volunteers can be paged at a moment’s notice. A new boat, the Val Adnams, was launched by Brian and his team in 2022 marking a bright future for the station and the village.

Deterioration of Brian’s hearing left him with no choice but to retire from his teaching post in Darrara College in 2010. He feared this would impact his role at the RNLI as well. ‘It kind of worried me a little bit that my hearing would be a difficulty, and it was for a while,’ he said.

New technology made his role much easier. Thanks to Bluetooth, Brian could now answer the phone and communicate with his team with ease, which ‘changed things hugely’ for him. ‘Ordinary people take it for granted, but it’s very important for someone like myself.’

Although he is no longer the LOM of the station, Brian still attends Friday night exercises. ‘It’s great for social interaction, and I know who all the young people are now. If I wasn’t involved in it, I wouldn’t know these people because they’re a different generation to myself. I think people underestimate the value of that.’

Looking to the future of Courtmacsherry RNLI, Brian said the station and the operations team are ‘very healthy’, and he has great faith in his successor, Barry Scannell. ‘I’ve no doubt he’ll do a great job.’