Two boys who helped to save a Scout leader after he hurt his ankle on a glacier in the Alps, were among those recognised for their bravery on Saturday.
Sean Hoban (17) and Brian McGrath (18) from Waterford received the silver honour award at Trinity College Dublin where scouts from all over Ireland gathered to celebrate Scouting Ireland’s founders day.
“Our Scout leader was walking along a glacier when he fell over an snapped his ankle so Sean stayed with him while I went off to get help,” said Brian.
“Brian sent a text on my phone to my mam but I knew we were out of signal because we were at such a high altitude but my phone kept sending the message until we got signal. I then gave her our location through the maps app on the phone so she could ring the emergency services and tell us where we were located,” said Brian.
Saturday’s awards ceremony acknowledged the achievements of Scouting Ireland youth members with more than 100 Gaisce, Duke of Edinburgh, and Chief Scouts Awards handed out.
The Waterford boys were among seven scouts from across Ireland to receive am honour award for their bravery.
Cork twins Rory and Peter O’Connor (9) received a bronze honour award for saving their grandmother, sister and sister’s friend from a fire.
“We were playing Xbox one day but we could see smoke coming from the room where the stove is in the house was, so we got everyone out of the house and called the fire brigade,” said Rory.
Seán Thompson (16) from Wexford and Mollie Gibbons Powell (16) from Dublin were given the silver honour award for helping to save the life of a Turkish teenager.
“We were in Turkey on a scout trip and were walking near a fresh water river. There was a bridge across the river you could jump off to swim in the water but it’s quite deep. The Turkish boy jumped in and his younger cousin jumped in after him and knocked him out,” said Sean.
“Seán jumped in and got the older boy up out of the river and I pulled him out, put him in the recovery position and cleared his airwaves. We performed CPR on him until a general nurse came to take over,” said Mollie.
Jake Duffy (12) a scout from Dublin received the bronze medal of honour award for saving his sister who was being dragged by a bus after her jacket was caught in the bus door.
“I was on the bus with my sister but when she get off her hood got caught in the door and it dragged her along with road for about 100 metres.
“I chased after her and started banging on the door of the bus. Eventually her hood fell off but she fell on to the pavement. I got her off the road and onto the grass and made sure she was okay. It was terrifying but we were very lucky she was okay afterwards,” said Jake.
Scouting Ireland is the largest non-formal youth education movement in Ireland with over 50,000 members.