Newcastle and Portaferry RNLI parade in Croke Park

Newcastle and Portaferry RNLI parade in Croke Park

9 July 2025

NEWCASTLE and Portaferry RNLI volunteers were among those in Croke Park at last weekend’s All-Ireland senior hurling championship semi-final to promote the charity’s water safety partnership with the GAA.

The partnership aims to reduce the number of people who lose their lives through drowning each year.

While most of this work is carried out at club level through educational talks and presentations, the charity has been offered the opportunity for the last eight years to deliver a pitch activation in Croke Park on a key date in the GAA’s calendar.

Together on Saturday, Newcastle RNLI volunteers Karl Brannigan and Eimear McGarvey and Portaferry RNLI volunteers Paul Mageean and Gary Meehan delivered key water safety messages to over 80,000 people who were attending the sellout match between Cork and Dublin and the earlier camogie championship quarter-final between Waterford and Clare.

Naoive Coggin, mother of Cian Nugent, a young student who drowned after getting into difficulty in a rip current while swimming off Ardmore in Waterford in 2023, delivered a powerful pitch side interview in front of the packed stadium.

She told her story to raise awareness of the importance of sharing water safety advice.

The joint activity consisted of a flag display on the pitch just before throw-in at the Cork and Dublin decider.

One flag displayed an image of two lifeboats at sea while the other highlighted the partnership with a banner reading ‘Saving Lives Together’.

RNLI volunteers in full kit crossed the touchline and paraded towards the Hogan Stand before coming to a halt and allowing the flags to be displayed until the National Anthem was played.

Earlier in the afternoon, as fans entered the turnstiles, they were greeted by an Atlantic 85 class lifeboat which was on display while a team from the RNLI were on hand to interact, share water safety advice and demonstrate how to use essential lifesaving equipment such as a throw bag.

Paul Mageean, from Portaferry RNLI, said the partnership highlighted the “shared values” between the RNLI and the GAA, notably “volunteerism and the importance of communities”. 

“It is always a privilege for volunteers like ours at Portaferry and Newcastle to be invited to Croke Park on such a big day in the GAA’s championship calendar and to have the opportunity to promote water safety,” he remarked.