ReactionMaggie Paul had just dropped her two children, Jack (13) and Aifric (16) - both experienced sailors - at the junior sailing regatta in Dún Laoghaire yesterday when she passed five ambulances and two fire engines racing up the N11. She was on her way to her business in Bray.
"I thought there must have been some tragedy and then I got a call on my mobile from another parent telling me some of the children were in the water. I just turned straight around and raced back. I was in sheer panic. My daughter has a waterproof protector for her phone and I was calling it and I couldn't get her."
Asked what scene greeted her on the pier when she got back to Dún Laoghaire, she said: "It was like a film set. Ambulances everywhere, fire engines, people in life vests rushing about. Just chaos."
She made her way down to the large marquee behind the Royal St George Yacht Club, which was to be used for a party last night but had, by 2pm yesterday, been transformed into a makeshift triage centre.
She saw children on stretchers with oxygen masks and others in hypothermia suits. "I saw one little girl - I know her - and she was being taken to hospital wrapped in a hypothermia suit. She had been in the water an hour.
"I found a paramedic who had my sons's name on a list of the safe and well, but not my daughter's. It was dreadful. I found her then and she was in a hypothermia suit."
Asked how she reacted, she said: "I think they were more in control than I was. Yes, I was crying by the time I found them."
Aifric had managed to right her vessel and sail back to shore. Jack, however, "got a bash in the head".
Although Jack was initially to be brought to Tallaght Hospital, Ms Paul said he was going to be released from the shore-side triage centre to go home.
"They are both very experienced sailors," she said. She had no concerns about whether the yacht club had acted responsibly in allowing the young people on to the water.
"No, they are far too responsible for that. When they went out at 2pm it was flat calm. This was just a freak thing."
Frank Byrne, from Gorey, Co Wexford, whose son Ian (14) had been sailing in a "topper" craft, said he had not been worried. "Ian's very experienced and used to sailing in difficult conditions."
Ian, who had been out on the water since 10am, said he was not scared.
"It was just a bit windy. I was in two races. This was the second one and the wind just started getting really strong very fast. I nearly capsized once but I wasn't really looking at the other boats. I just wanted to finish the race."
Conor McAleefe (19), whose boat was overturned, described the experience as "brilliant. There were loads of waves." Asked if he had been scared, he said: "No, not at all. I got the boat back up and sailed back."
Amie Regan, an instructor with the National Yacht Club, was on rescue duty. She had been monitoring conditions through the day and said the sea had been calm when she "went inside for a break".
Two races were under way - one about a mile offshore and the other about two miles offshore. Each race would have taken an hour to an hour and a half to complete. "There was a small craft warning in operation, but it was very calm. Then it just kicked off so suddenly.
"I went out on a rib [ rigid inflatable boat] to get the younger ones, aged about 13, to come in. We were telling them to abandon their boats and just get in. It was a freak thing. It blew in so quickly I don't think anyone could have predicted it."