Cow and calf sunday found surviving on tiny island

Damian McCarney

In a tale of survival worthy of Robinson Crusoe, a cow which had been missing from its herd for about two months was found alive on a tiny, uninhabited island on Breakey Lake. Rescuers who came to the cow’s assistance were stunned to find that not only was it miraculously still alive, but it had a newborn heifer for company.
The cow belongs to farmer Sean Kelleher, who feared he had lost the Limousin cow from his Cormeen farm for good, until it was spotted by an alert neighbour at the weekend. Another neighbour, Kevin Carolan and his daughters, volunteered to bring hay and meal by boat to the malnourished cow on Sunday morning, and discovered the young calf.
“We have christened her ‘Sunday’,” quipped Sean, “you can work out why...”
The cow was due to calf around mid-August. Sean, who lives in Bailieborough, plans to leave the two animals on the island for a few days, to strengthen them up before completing the rescue.
“The calf is wild,” said Kevin. “Obviously she’s never seen a human before and ran around fairly nervously.
“But she [the cow] was glad to see us,” he added with a laugh.
The cow survived on the island, estimated to be only 10 metres in diameter, by eating everything it could possibly digest.
“You should see the island,” remarked Kevin. “The island is completely stripped of anything she could have eaten - ivy, bark, weeds, bramble - absolutely stripped clean.
“She doesn’t look well, she is very ill, but the calf is in really good shape. So she has obviously looked after the calf quite well, to her own detriment.”
Eating the dense overgrowth was key to the animals’ discovery.
“That’s how she was found, she trampled and ate everything that was on it, and the local farmer noticed you could see onto the island, and that there was something going on,” explained Kevin.
Local residents believe that the last time anyone ventured out onto the island was over 60 years ago when the lake froze over and an intrepid farmer negotiated a donkey and trap across the ice to cut wood.
Sean and Kevin speculate that the cow had been drinking from the lake when it was dunted into the water by another cow from the herd and continued to swim the 150m out to the island. The cow’s discovery had ended a mystery that had left Sean baffled for the last nine weeks, however they now have another problem to solve - getting her off the island.
“We have a lot of locals working on all possibilities now,” says Sean.

Meath River Rescue have come to Sean's help and plan to return the cow to the mainland this Saturday.