{"id":176983,"date":"2025-12-05T18:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/176983\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:18:08","slug":"national-bravery-award-posthumously-given-to-mans-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/176983\/","title":{"rendered":"National Bravery Award posthumously given to man’s family"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 90-year-old man who died after pushing a woman from the direct path of an oncoming car has posthumously been given a National Bravery Award.<\/p>\n

Callaghan ‘Cal’ O’Keefe was struck by the vehice as he pushed the woman and the retired teacher later died in hospital.<\/p>\n

He was among several people who received National Bravery Awards for acts of selflessness and courage.<\/p>\n

The recipients from 11 counties across the country were honoured at a ceremony in Leinster House.<\/p>\n

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy presented 22 accolades, including certificates and medals, to the individuals who “risked their own lives to aid others in peril”.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Keefe’s family received the gold award for his deed, with his son saying there are “certainly mixed emotions”.<\/p>\n

\"Martin
\nMartin O’Keefe said the award is ‘very important’ to the family<\/p>\n

Martin O’Keefe said: “It’s been quite difficult, very difficult for my mum.<\/p>\n

“She’s done a lot of grieving, but obviously to have that final act being quite heroic … it’s a bittersweet memory.”<\/p>\n

The honour is significant for the family, he said, describing it as “very important”.<\/p>\n

“We’re very happy to be here today and to accept the award on his behalf,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re extremely proud of what he did and today is going to be a very special day for us and all the other recipients of the other awards as well,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"Donal
\nDonal Kavanagh rescued five family members from a burning house in 1991<\/p>\n

Donal Kavanagh from Belfast was presented with accolades for his actions in 1991 when he was 11 years old.<\/p>\n

Mr Kavanagh rescued five family members from a burning house in Co Sligo.<\/p>\n

“I woke up during the night to noise and the living room was ablaze,” he said.<\/p>\n

He managed to get his grandparents, granduncle and his little sister out of the property to safety.<\/p>\n

Mr Kavanagh said: “Even now after nearly, as you say, 40 years, I still think of what could have been.<\/p>\n

“My grandparents, my grand uncle, my little sister and myself … things could have been so different.”<\/p>\n

He was given a silver medal and a certificate of bravery for his actions.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan
\nJonathan Monroe saved a man ‘in distress’ from a canal<\/p>\n

The bronze medal at the ceremony was awared to Jonathan Monroe for rescuing a man from the Eglington canal in Co Galway in July 2022.<\/p>\n

“I was just walking along the canal near the NUIG campus and I could hear splashing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Monroe said the man was “in distress”, adding “he was bobbing up and down, and it was kind of a blur”.<\/p>\n

He said: “I took my top off, jumped in the water and pulled him out the other side.<\/p>\n

“There was another man to help me pull him out on the other side then as well.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t really realise what I was doing. It just happened really quickly and before I knew it, it was over.”<\/p>\n

Among those who were also honoured was 11-year-old Carla Murphy from Co Waterford, who rescued her mother from a serious assault at their home in 2023.<\/p>\n

Ms Murphy, this year\u2019s youngest recipient, received a silver medal and a certificate of bravery.<\/p>\n

Commenting ahead of the event, the Ceann Comhairle said those who were honoured have “made the world feel a little less dark” and “a little less dangerous”.<\/p>\n

Their actions, she said, give “hope to us all for the road ahead”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 90-year-old man who died after pushing a woman from the direct path of an oncoming car has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-176983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}