Another sunny day, another sea rescue off the coast of Dublin, but those in yesterday's latest drama were a little bit more famous than usual.
The Dun Laoghaire Lifeboat was launched yesterday after a series of 999 calls reported an object crashing into the water 1,000 metres off Bray seafront, Co Wicklow.
Several paragliders had been operating in the area and there were fears that one of them could be in difficulty.
Arriving on scene, the volunteer crew of seven aboard the all-weather lifeboat carried out a brief search, before identifying the victim and recovering... a large Mickey Mouse balloon.
It had apparently crash-landed and was being carried by a light breeze and, what is known as, a flood tide towards the cliffs at Shanganagh.
"We're happy that this was a call made with good intent and calling 999 and asking for Coast Rescue is always the best course of action," commented Stephen Wynne, lifeboat operations manager at Dun Laoghaire. "And in this case, we were particularly happy to assist Mickey Mouse, one of the all-time favourite cartoon characters."
