SHOCKING FOOTAGE has surfaced online of a man swimming in the sea off the Galway coast while ‘Storm Brendan’ rages on.
Met Eireann has issued multiple weather warnings in the wake of the stormfront’s arrival in Ireland this past Monday, January 12.
However, the strong winds and turbulent tides didn’t prevent one man from going for an unsupervised and extremely unsafe dip in dangerous conditions.
The man was film swimming in Salthill at around 4pm on Monday afternoon.
His antics came in the midst of an orange weather warning in the region and sparked a string of angry reactions from those watching the clip online.
“This is why the emergency services are under pressure,” one critic said. “Idiots like this.”
“There should be a law against this, with severe penalties,” another said.
“If he gets into difficulties, he's risking the lives of the people tasked with saving him.”
“What's that clown trying to prove?” a third asked. “He should be arrested.”
Nice day for a dip in Salthill Par 2
The swimmer returns safely.#StormBrendan pic.twitter.com/1AE8kWstxv— Lord Roddy (@TommyRoddy) January 13, 2020
A fourth went further: “What an absolute arse. So presumably if he had got into difficulty he would have expected others to put their lives at risk to save him?! I’d put that one down to natural selection.”
The footage was captured by Galway local Tommy Roddy who confirmed to Extra.ie that the man made it out of the sea safely.
“He was followed straight away by another gentleman, but I couldn’t record him because a wave covered me in water and temporarily knocked my phone out of action,” Mr Roddy said.
“This man also returned safely. My phone is back in working order.”
