Water safety officials have said two young men who dived into the Atlantic as Storm Desmond swept in were stupid.
The pair were captured on video at the well-known sea swimming spot at Blackrock in Salthill, Galway in a clip which has now been viewed more than a million times.
The first to attempt the drop from the famous high diving boards can be seen readying himself for a back flip in a the midst of gales force winds, heavy rain, sea spray and a fast moving swell. The second opts to jump in feet first.
The footage prompted the Irish Coast Guard to issue a criticism and to warn that the dive was stupid and not fun.
“There have been a number of posts of videos of young men doing stupid things in the water during Storm Desmond which have gained international coverage,” the organisation said.
“Whilst we don’t want to discourage fun just remember that when the ‘adventure’ goes wrong it will be the volunteer crews of the Coast Guard, the RNLI and other rescue services that have to put themselves in harms way to pick up the pieces.”
The footage was filmed and posted on Facebook by Cathal Devlin who also hit out at the divers in an online post. "By posting this video of Storm Desmond in Salthill, Galway I wish to highlight the absolute madness and stupidity of what these youngsters are doing," he said.
“I do not know if they are strong swimmers or not, that is not the case, if any one of them got into difficulties there was no one there to do anything for them. The voluntary and rescue services are kept busy enough without having to worry about this type of stupid behaviour.”
Mr Devlin also said he had not condoned the dive in an earlier post and saw nothing macho in it.
PA