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25th Aug 2021

‘Frost bit boy’ rescued from sea after swimming for 12 hours with dolphins

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Well, you wouldn’t be long getting frost bit out there.

We all know the saying “stranger things have happened”, well we’re now convinced that this might be the thing to trump that.

Remember the Northern Irish boy on the news who went viral for the way he said “frost bit” instead of “frost bite”? Well boy do we have a story about him.

Earlier this week a swimmer was rescued off the coast of Kerry after being stranded for 12 hours, with only a school of dolphins to keep him company.

Ruairí McSorley went viral as “Frostbit Boy” back in 2015, but was rescued by the RNLI when clothes were discovered at Castlegregory beach at 11am on Sunday by a dog walker.

After hours of searching, they spotted a head above the water and brought the swimmer onboard the lifeboat and then to University Hospital Kerry.

The 24 year old Derry man told the Irish Independent that he was feeling “100%” after the incident, and thankfully has “no long-term damage.”

He said: “The only thing was my kidneys needed to readjust, so there has been no serious harm. It was only a matter of going into the hospital to heat up a bit. Other than that, I was fine.”

Not telling his friends or family where he was headed, Ruairí said he decided to swim out to Fenit Island in the spur of the moment.

He had been staying at the Seaside caravan park not far from Inch Beach.

He said: “I just jumped in, and that was it. I saw Fenit lighthouse out in the water, and I said, right I’m going towards it. I wouldn’t have got in to start with if I didn’t know I was going to be grand.”

And after seeing the “black tails” in the water, he didn’t know if they were sharks or dolphins, hoping for the latter.

He added: “I just thought to myself, maybe it wouldn’t have been the worst idea to have googled this before I jumped in, but they were just dolphins.”

Imagine the stories this lad tells over pints?