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AUTHORITIES AND EMERGENCY services have warned people to stay away from coasts as Storm Ophelia thunders across the country.
Despite numerous warnings to the public that they should stay indoors, with the Taoiseach calling it a “matter of life and death”, people have been spotted outside in severe weather conditions.
Earlier today, two windsurfers were rescued by the Coast Guard after they got into difficulty at Dundalk Bay, Co Louth.
The Happy Pear business men were harshly criticised after they posted a photo of them heading out for a morning swim – they later apologised and removed the photo.
More recently, people have been spotted at Salthill walking, swimming and taking selfies, close to the time when ex-Hurricane Ophelia is set to become its most powerful.
People have criticised those who have headed out near the coast today, saying that they’re putting both gardaí and coast guard members’ lives in danger.
The Irish Coast has this evening made a direct plea for people to stay away from exposed coasts, tweeting:
We continue to advise the public to stay away from exposed beaches cliffs & piers, harbours & promenades during storm conditions.
Despite this, Gerard O’Flynn of the Irish Coast Guard said that they’re part of a minority, and the vast majority of people are abiding by the extreme weather warnings.
“The two earlier incidents were innocent errors really. The bad weather hadn’t hit yet, and they were confident about what they were doing.
“But it’s not the day for heading out to sea, where our resources could needed elsewhere.”
Gardaí in Galway echoed that warning earlier, saying that people were still out along Salthill’s promenade with children and animals earlier.
“Please stay off the roads and please stay indoors,” was the message they issued.
The Rosslare RNLI lifeboat was also launched today to rescue three men in a 10 m yacht who had been trying to get back to shore since last night.
The men were finally rescued at 2 pm today after being battered by the storm about 10 miles from shore.
“The crew had been trying to get to safety since the early hours and had attempted to gain entry to a few harbours but were constantly pushed back by winds and tides,” RNLI said this evening.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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Three give unlimited data so you don’t need to check usage
I am with Three and have all you can eat data. It’s great!
Three wont accept me. Been turned down by some asian dude twice. F##k 3.
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Great idea sick of the phone companies cashing in big time on data usage especially on kids and the non data savvy elderly,
started doing this about 3 weeks ago and my phone bill was €30 cheaper today.. happy days.
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It’s cellular on my iPhone!
Three are a terrible, terrible network when something goes wrong but the all you can eat data is brilliant. I regularly use 10-15GB between app downloads, navigation, Spotify, Youtube, Netflix etc. If you find yourself spending loads of extra out of bundle charges on data every month you’re on the wrong tariff.
Now three have bought O2 their service center will probably be O2′s one in Limerick and it should mean they have the best reception, maybe not now but by Christmas hopefully
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Also if you are abroad and have pre bought data – check they don’t start putting the same charge on your bill every month after
3g watch dog app is brilliant. It’s free & will msg you when your data near max
There’s a great widget with 3g watchdog on the play store for you android people. Nice to see at a glance on the home screen and you get info in the drop down menu too. And its free. Far better than the baked in settings I reckon
Being a phone monkey for a mobile provider, I wish every person with a smart phone knew about this. It’s soul destroying how many complaints about data charges I’ve gotten on every shift for the past 3 years.
Been trying out an app for android called viaProtect for the last week. It tells you where your apps are directing your data. It’s still in public beta, but it’s interesting all the same
T-Mobile has unlimited everything and and for $60 so no worrying about overages here.
Thank you Raymond, that’s very helpful.
Vodafone’s My Vodafone app is very handy for knowing exactly how much total you have used so far in a month as well as any outside of plan costs you have incurred etc.
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