A Rescue "Well" Done

Local Farmer's Astonishing 1898 Well Rescue Remembered

MULLINARY, COUNTY ARMAGH, NORTHERN IRELAND – In an act of incredible bravery on August 18, 1898, a local farmer named Peter Hughes undertook a perilous, head-first rescue to save his neighbor from drowning in a well. The harrowing incident began when sixty-year-old Sarah McGlone accidentally fell into her own well in the townland of Mullinary, near Blackwatertown. The well was forty feet deep and contained thirty feet of water, making the situation immediately life-threatening.

A young boy, the only witness to the fall, was unable to provide assistance himself. His frantic cries for help, however, reached Peter Hughes, who rushed to the scene. With no time to spare, Hughes devised a desperate and dangerous plan. He found a rope, tied it around his own legs, and handed the other end to the boy. Hughes was then lowered head-first down into the darkness of the well. Reaching the struggling woman, he grabbed her by the shoulder and shouted for the boy to pull them to safety. However, the combined weight was too much for the lad, who could not lift them. This left Hughes in an agonizing position: suspended upside-down in a narrow well, holding the weight of Ms. McGlone to prevent her from drowning. He was forced to remain there until the boy’s continued cries attracted more help. 

Finally, others arrived and hauled both Hughes and the now-unconscious Sarah McGlone from the well, concluding a truly death-defying rescue.