Irishman Liam Keane's dip in giant pothole is YouTube hit
- Published
Liam, 21, found the huge hole in the road near his home in Cork after a friend put a traffic cone into it
When Irishman Liam Keane found what looks like Ireland's biggest ever pothole, he couldn't resist pulling on his togs and taking a dip.
Liam, 21, from Kanturk, County Cork, found himself up to his armpits in water.
But he never dreamed that his post-Christmas dip would be an international hit.
No sooner was the video up than thousands of people across the world wanted to see.
Liam, 21, found the huge hole in the road near his home in Cork after a friend put a traffic cone into it.
But Liam decided to go one better and jumped in for a swim and a laugh. His girlfriend Stephanie Cronin videoed a very chilly Liam in his shorts swimming in the hole.
"It was deep all right. It was about 5 ft deep and very very cold. But I'm a mad fella so I went for it," he said.
"The water was over my waist and getting up to my chest and I'm over 6 ft tall."
Liam said it was a post-Christmas prank.
"It was a burst water main that made a hole in the road and it was there for a few days.
"With all the doom and gloom and with the Budget, I just decided to make a few people laugh."
Come on in, the water's lovely... Liam Keane prepares for his pothole debut
Now more than a few are laughing. The video proved a YouTube, external sensation and a Facebook hit.
"I thought it might get about 20 likes from my friends. But people in Australia, America and Germany watched it. There are 60,000 hits on the video so far," he said.
"My cousin was in a bar in Amsterdam and he looked up at the television and there was me swimming about in the pothole."
No sooner was the video posted than the local council swung into action and filled in the offending hole on the mountain road at Lismire.
"It must have been there for a week but once my video went up it was fixed very quickly. So I'm your pothole man now," joked Liam.
"Anywhere in the country that there is a pothole, send for me and I'll get it sorted."
A spokesman for Cork County Council said the hole was not technically a pothole as it was caused by a burst water main close by.
"It was on a very minor road and the problem was fixed as soon as the council was made aware of it," he said.