EIGHT holidaymakers had to be rescued yesterday after their cruise boat ran aground on Lough Derg in Co Clare.
The alarm was raised at about 3.30pm when the Coast Guard received a report of a vessel having been sighted on rocks off Crane Island close to Church Bay on the Clare shore of Lough Derg.
The Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat was requested to launch and went to the scene from its base at Dromineer, Co Tipperary.
The lifeboat reached the casualty vessel shortly before 4pm and found all adults to be safe and unharmed. All eight were non-Irish nationals.
RNLI Lifeboat Training Officer Fergal Kerney was in the area at the time and made his way to the stricken vessel. He remained with them until the lifeboat arrived. Winds at the time were south-westerly force 2 to 3.
Occupants were told to put on their lifejackets before the vessel could be towed off the rocks.
An RNLI crew member climbed aboard the cruiser and confirmed that the vessel was not holed or damaged. The boat was taken off the rocks and towed out into safer waters where a further inspection of the vessel was carried out.
The cruiser then continued on its journey back towards Garrykennedy, Co Tipperary from where it had set off earlier.