"GIVE HERO GARDA A BRAVERY AWARD'

Senator's call after newly trained officer saved man from drowning

- LOUISE BURNE

A SENATOR will ask Garda chief Drew Harris to seek recognition for a hero officer who was never celebrated for saving a drowning man.

Garda Jeremiah Coonan and two passers-by successfully pulled an unconscious man out of Dublin’s River Liffey in January 1980.

Mr Coonan had passed out of the Garda Training College in Templemore just four months before the incident.

He was on duty in Lower O’Connell Street one evening when he saw a crowd of people on O’Connell Bridge. As he approached, some members of the crowd informed him there was a body in the river.

Mr Coonan said the man was “laying on his back with his arms outstretched” and appeared to be unconscious.