"Girl freed after
five hours trapped under rock"
Irish Independent, 11/11/85.
A teenage girl was rescued last night after a five-hour ordeal
trapped underneath a huge rock. Despite the fact that the area
was inaccessible to heavy lifting machinery a rescue team managed
to shift the rock. Fifteen-year-old Kay Slattery's (name changed)
ordeal began at 5pm when she stepped on a rock while walking with
her father at the bottom of a 150 foot high sea cliff half a mile
from the village of Annascaul in Co. Kerry. It rolled over, pinning
her legs underneath.
Her father, Derek, who had been on the look-out for stray sheep,
immediately raised the alarm and the rescue 
operation began. For a time it was thought that Kay might have
to wait until first light for an Air Corps helicopter to lift
the rock which was pinning the lower part of her body. But just
before 10pm the rescuers managed to free her and she was rushed
by ambulance to Tralee General Hospital.
A problem for the rescuers was that the rock had to be lifted
upwards as it could not be shifted sideways. "It was a slow
and tedious operation," one eyewitness commented. Local GP
Dr. David Breen administered injections to ease the pain suffered
by secondary school student Kay. She was conscious throughout
her ordeal, comforted by her father and other members of her family.
Kerry Mountain Rescue Team, Dingle fire brigade, gardaí,
and Valentia lifeboat joined dozens of local people in trying
to remove the rock without causing further injury. The place where
Kay was trapped is so inaccessible that she had to be transferred
to a rubber dinghy after her rescue. She was taken to land a short
distance away and then by stretcher to an ambulance for the journey
to hospital.
