THE kindness of strangers in West Cork made for a memorable Christmas experience for one Kildare couple who found themselves stranded with a flat tyre with no spare wheel on Christmas Eve.
Rachel Denise from Nurney was being whisked away by her partner Conor for a surprise romantic Christmas getaway to Cottages for Couples outside Skibbereen.
‘We were on our way there on Christmas Eve when we got a flat tyre just outside Drimoleague and then realised we had no spare tyre, to make matters worse,’ Rachel told The Southern Star.
‘I rang my insurance company and they put me in touch with Gerry from N71 Breakdown & Recovery and he was fantastic. His main concern was to ensure we got to our destination which wasn’t that far off.’
Declan Coakley, a taxi driver soon arrived to pick them up on the side of the road and loaded up their bags and more importantly their Christmas presents and dropped them to Cottages for Couples.
‘We were told that it would be December 27th at the earliest before we would be able to source a tyre as every place was closed. However, we needed to get back to Kildare on December 26th so we were in a right dilemma.’
Worried about what to do next, Rachel posted her story on the Skibbereen Notice Board on Facebook and was only too delighted when Anne Daly contacted her. Her husband Donal works at Skibbereen Tyre Centre.
‘Anne took the time out of her Christmas Day to message me and to say that Donal would meet us at their garage on St Stephen’s Day. He arranged for the breakdown service to drop the car to the Bantry Tyre Centre where we could get a new tyre.’
They then relied on Declan again to drop them to Bantry to collect their car.
‘Declan was fantastic and he should be a tour guide! He was full of stories of local traditions and takes, and his biggest concern when we got there was to not leave us standing out in the cold. In the meantime, Donal was checking in with us too to see that we were ok.’
At Bantry Tyre Centre, they met up with Sean Casey, who opened up the whole place for them and gave them a new tyre and checked the other tyres for them too.
‘We are so grateful to Gerry, Anne, Donal, Declan and Sean for helping us as well as all the others who reached out to us. The kindness of strangers is truly amazing and these people went above and beyond. It really made our first visit to West Cork a truly memorable experience and we can’t wait to come back and pack a spare tyre the next time!’
