This article is from page 6 of the 2014-04-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE actions of a mystery guitarist, who played a half hour long guitar solo on a small rocky outcrop in the Ennistymon cascades, have been described as “reckless” and “highly dangerous” by Clare’s most senior water safety official.
Clare County Council Water Safety Officer Liam Griffin, yesterday appealed to members of the public not to copy the bizarre incident, which he said could easily have lead to a fatality.
The incident took place on a rocky crag in the centre of the famous En- nistymon Cascades, beside the Falls Hotel, earlier this month. A man was seen to enter the cascades underneath the bridge in Ennistymon and play a Slash-style guitar solo in the centre of the river for around half an hour.
While no one was hurt in the incident, a photograph of the guitarist was released on social media last week – prompting Clare’s Water Safety Office to issue a warning.
“This behaviour is both reckless and highly dangerous. I would appeal to the public not to imitate these acts as repeat acts of this nature will lead to a fatality,” said Mr Griffin yesterday.
The guitarist has been identified as a member of Clare band ‘Los Paddys de Los Pampas’ who intend to use footage of the guitarist for an upcoming music video. Band spokesperson Paddy Mulcahy, yesterday declined to identify the guitarist and claimed that the incident was safe.
“I can understand him [Clare Water Safety Officer, Liam Griffin] not wanting to encourage folks to play on the waterfall, but what we did was perfectly safe,” said Mr Mulcahy.
“Of course we don’t want kids playing there, but recording a video of a guitar solo is different to playing. If we were running across the waterfalls just for a laugh, I’d say that would have been a bad example for people. But we went there for a single purpose, did it quickly, and then left.
“The video is a scene for an upcoming music video. The guitarist wanted an epic scene for his guitar solo in the middle of the song, so we decided the most amazing looking place we have on our door step was the falls in Ennistymon.”