A huge congratulations are in order to our very own Martin O’Sullivan, Ambassador of the Order of Lifesaving and the new Chairman of Irish Water Safety!
Ambassador Award
The International Life Saving Europe (ILSE) Board of Directors held their annual meetings in Lucerne, Switzerland from May 20 to 22nd. At this meeting Irish Water Safety’s Acting Chairman, Martin O’Sullivan, was presented with the highest award of the ILSE, the “Ambassador Award”. This prestigious Award was presented by the ILSE President, Dr. Detlev Mohr, “in recognition of Martin’s devotion to the cause of the saving of life in aquatic environments.” The full title of the Award is Ambassador of the Order of Lifesaving.
Chairman
Having served for a short time as Acting Chairman, Martin was recently promoted to Chairman of Irish Water Safety. He has been involved with water safety since 1970, when he did his lifesaving tests with the Red Cross. Martin has served as Chairman of Cork Water Safety Area Committee at various times since 1973 and is the current Chairman of the Rescue Commission. Martin is the IWS representative on the Blue Flag jury. He is an Examiner, Swimming teacher Tutor, Senior Risk Assessment Tutor with ILS (E) and Chairman of the Technical Committee of IWS. He has been involved internationally since 1990, is a member of the Board of Directors of ILSE and is the Chairman of the Rescue Commission of ILS. He has developed the ILSE Risk Assessment Project on a European wide basis. Also, Martin sits on our Cork Area Water Safety committee and instructs Beach Lifeguard courses in Gus Healy Swimming Pool in Douglas.
“I am honoured to be appointed as Chairman of Irish Water Safety (IWS). It is an organisation with a rich history of volunteerism and is deeply committed to these volunteers who teach swimming, lifesaving and promote drowning prevention initiatives nationwide.” said Mr O’Sullivan, “I commend our volunteers for organising winter and summer classes in lifesaving and I strongly appeal to those with children in their care to enroll them in our upcoming annual lifesaving classes nationwide. Over 110,000 certificates were issued last year as volunteers teach the skills necessary to maintain a corps of trained lifeguards for pools and beaches and give the public water confidence and water survival skills.”
Congratulations and the best of luck in his new role to Martin, from everyone at Cork Water Safety!