US singer Taylor Swift once sent a letter to two girls who underwent a terrifying 15 hour ordeal after drifting out on paddle boards in Galway Bay three years ago.
Galway cousins Ellen Glynn, then 17, and Sara Feeney, then 23, said they sang Swift’s song ‘Exile’ during their ordeal where they drifted some 33km towards the Cliffs of Moher from Furbo Beach on the evening of August 13, 2020.
The two were eventually rescued the following day, having spent the night at sea clinging to a crab pot and enduring swells, heavy rain, cold temperatures, thunder and lightning, by fishermen Patrick Oliver and his son Morgan.
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They were then transported to hospital by the Irish Coast Guard.
Recounting their ordeal in 2021 in a RTE Documentary on One: Miracle in Galway Bay, Ellen recalled how she had Swift’s song stuck in her head and how the pair started to sing it as a distraction.
“It started getting later, and it started getting darker,” Ellen recounted. “We weren’t really saying much out loud.
“As soon as the sun went down, it just got really cold.
“I don’t think me or Sara were out loud worrying but obviously we were kind of thinking, ‘Oh god, this is bad.’ And I was kind of getting a little bit stressed.
“And I had a song stuck in my head that kept playing on repeat and I needed to get it out, so I just burst into song - ‘I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn't like the ending.’
“Sara thought I was insane, but then she started singing along. It was a distraction, it blocked us from having worries for a while.”
Later, Swift - who announced on Tuesday she will perform Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Friday, June 28 and Saturday , June 29 next year - then sent Ellen a letter to say how moved she was by the girls' ordeal, and also included a painting that includes some of her lyrics.
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