Clare goalkeeper Joe Hayes is being hailed as a hero after he saved a young woman from drowning in the River Shannon yesterday.

Hayes, who is a garda based at Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick, was going on duty at 6.30am when two of his colleagues - Tadgh Cronin and Brian Darcy - noticed that a woman was in difficulty at the river by the Shannon Bridge.

"The woman was crying and she was holding onto one of the metal ladders going from the river wall down onto the river. A number of guards were talking to her to try and get her to come away from the water's edge," one witness said.

Garda Hayes raced to the scene and immediately dived into the river. He managed to find the woman and got her head above water before swimming to a nearby ladder where his colleagues, Sergeant Pat Brennan, Garda Dermot Murphy, Garda Sean O'Regan and Garda Adrian Egan, assisted him in taking her from the cold water.

"He dived in after her and got to her very quickly and managed to bring her to where members of the rescue service were. She was lifted out of the water and put in an ambulance," the witness added.

The woman was treated at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital. After his heroic deed, Hayes was back training with his Clare football colleagues last night ahead of their Munster SFC semi-final against Limerick on Saturday evening. Tweet

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