How do I call emergency services for someone in Ireland when I am in the US?

7/22/2019 8:33:12 AM

Having recently had to call an ambulance in Ireland (for myself). There are distinct advantages to making the call locally, such as location technology (essential in my case – I knew exactly where I was but the road/mountain pass name wasn’t on their system) and staying on the line to support the casualty. This means if at all possible the casualty should hang up and call for themself, or use another line. It is of course possible that the person becomes unconscious while talking to you, needs your support too much to hang up, or can only get a text message out. In most of these cases police (gardai) support will be needed and making an international call to the local garda station is best. This requires international calling, so you may have to find a phone that supports it if yours doesn’t.

In many areas of Ireland ambulances aren’t despatched from hospitals. Mine came from the nearest town (20 minutes away) but the hospital was well over an hour away. So calling the nearest hospital is unlikely to be efficient.

2/20/2018 10:11:40 PM

My friend had to get an ambulance for me last year, she called 911, her local police department contacted my local Garda station and they took it from there, although I’m pretty sure this is completely discretionary, and in an emergency where time is of the essence, probably wouldn’t be the best idea.

The Gardaí Headquarters number is +353 1 666 0000, This would probably be your best bet. Alternatively, Store Street Garda Station is one of the main stations in the country, they are open 24/7, and would be able to at least tell you who or where to call. They can be reached at +353 1 666 8000

Hopefully you or nobody else will ever need this information, but it’s always best to have it!

4/18/2017 7:31:45 AM

Call the Operator where you are, have them connect with an Operator in the country in question, have that second operator connect you to emergency services in the town where the distressed person lives.

Every police station, fire station, emergency response location has a local phone number. While they may initially suggest calling 911 / 112 / whatever central number is, as soon as you explain your situation, they will get someone on the line that can help.

4/16/2017 3:19:51 PM

  1. Ask your friend to use local resources to select a list of direct phone numbers, not 999, to call for an emergency. When I was regularly phoning my mother, I had the phone number of her next door neighbor. I could also have found the direct dial number for her local police station, if I had needed it.
  2. Look up “international call services”. Select and test a couple of them by placing a call to your friend, and keep the information on how to use them with the phone numbers.

In an emergency, use one of the international call services from step 2 to call the numbers from step 1.

4/16/2017 1:56:08 PM

You can continue your research by contacting An Garda Síochána, the Irish National Police, to get direct advice on how to handle this.

You may get better advice by contacting the local station where the person is located, assuming they are not travelling around.

4/16/2017 12:47:55 PM

You can’t. Emergency telephony services are local and cannot be transferred internationally.

That said, I can’t think of any scenario where that somebody could be in trouble and capable of communicating with someone overseas, but unable to contact the local emergency services. If they have a phone, they can call 999/112, even without a local SIM card or credit etc. It’s even increasingly possible (albeit far from guaranteed) that you can call emergency numbers over wifi, and even if they can’t, they will presumably be able to contact somebody in Ireland who can call on their behalf.

In the exceedingly unlikely event that this is necessary anyway — say, they’ve been kidnapped and chained to a radiator in a basement, but their hands have helpfully been left untied, they have a phone in their pocket and the kidnapper’s house has unprotected wifi, so they can send a plea for help to you over Snapchat — you could try calling the Tourist Assistance Service or a major hospital near where they’re staying and explaining the situation.

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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