Category Archives: Media

St Patrick’s Day Parade, Skerries 2016

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The Skerries Coast Guard team will once again be taking part in the annual St Patrick’s day parade in Skerries, The parade is organised by the Skerries Chamber of Commerce with countless local volunteers assisting with stewarding. All parade entrants and floats will assemble from 1:30pm at the South Strand, where the judging will take place before the parade starts at 3pm.

The Irish Coast Guard’s Dublin based Sikorsky S92 helicopter is also expected to perform a dramatic flyover of the Strand Street / South Strand Street area just as the parade begins at 3pm. The parade will depart the South Strand assembly area and will make its way past the Monument and travel up Strand Street, past the viewing platform at St Patrick’s Church before finishing up at the Skerries Mills carpark. This is always an extremely popular parade and there are plenty of excellent viewing spots for the crowds along the route.

Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary search and rescue unit of the Irish Coast Guard

Skerries Coast Guard 2

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year !

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The crew of Skerries Coast Guard would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. A sincere thank you to all those who have supported our many rescues, searches, training and water safety events during 2015. This year has proved to have been one of our busiest in recent years. The Skerries Coast Guard crew will all continue be on call throughout the Christmas period, ready to respond should any incidents arise.

We would appeal to the public to remain vigilant over the Christmas and New Year and if you spot someone in difficulty dial 999 or 112 and ask for the COAST GUARD. Your call could save their life.

Skerries Coast Guard

Sky Lanterns – safety advice

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Skerries Coast Guard’s Safety Advice for Sky Lanterns

These airborne Chinese lanterns have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way of marking special events. However, they do pose a significant danger to aviation traffic and can cause the deployment of Irish Coast Guard resources on false rescue missions. Chinese lanterns, drifting across a night sky, are commonly mistaken by the public for marine distress flares. Each year, the Skerries Coast Guard team are tasked to investigate false distress alerts caused by Sky Lanterns.

If you are intending to release sky lanterns:

You must, before the release date, obtain permission in writing from the Flight Operations Dept of the Irish Aviation Authority.  You can contact them at fod@iaa.ie or by phone at 01 603 1148

Just before releasing the lanterns:

To ensure your lanterns are not confused as a sighting of a distress signal, you must contact the following agencies just prior to releasing the lanterns:

  • Irish Coast Guard
  • Nearest Air Traffic Control unit
  • Nearest Garda station

The detailed advice and all contact phone numbers are contained in the IAA’s Sky Lantern safety leaflet, available from their website or by clicking here.

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Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary rescue unit of the Irish Coast Guard

Visit to Fingal Lifeguards – 6th June 2015

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Skerries Coast Guard vehicle

This morning, the Skerries Coast Guard team paid a visit to all the Fingal lifeguard stations in our response area. This included lifeguard stations at Donabate/Portrane, Rush, Skerries & Balbriggan. This weekend marked the start of the summer season for the lifeguard beaches. The Skerries team distributed safety posters and Coast Guard “missing children” wristbands to the lifeguards. Despite the sunny weather, the fresh gales deterred all but the kitesurfers from heading out on the water.

Remember – you should always swim at beaches where lifeguard are on duty and do heed their advice for the prevailing conditions.

Skerries Coast Guard – a voluntary coastal rescue unit of the Irish Coat Guard