Name: Bono
Lives: Co.Kilkenny
Occupation: Qualified SARDA air scenting search dog.
Interests: Finding the ball, sandwiches, going for a dip.
In the team since: 2004 - and I don't think I was the first pup to join SEMRA either.
Current position in the team: On a search, I do the work of fifty humans. I also try to be a good influence on Mick Grant.
Lowlights: Always getting the blame when somebody piddles on a rucksack. Being told to shut up at team debriefs.
Highlights: Getting out of the van for a stretch after a long journey. Giving the dogsbodies a good workout on training days. Keeping Irene Codd awake on Croagh Patrick.
Name: Mary J Mullins
Lives: Horse and Jockey, in Tipperary, “The Home of Hurling”
Occupation: Community Worker
Interests: When not on the mountains, long walks with my Red Setter through the fields at home, going to concerts, skiing, swimming, coffee with the girls, different kinds of coffee.
In the team since: Member of “Club 2000”
Current position in the team: Night chef at the winter training session, bread and butter pudding the speciality.
Previous Positions held: Secretary, Chair.
Lowlights: Bono’s bark, and my lunch disappearing when he’s around. Losing my “bad hair day” title. Returning from Kerry a few years back after we had not found the missing person; it was a very hard journey to make.
Highlights: Training as a search manager, and then being able to use its scientific approach to saving lives. Being part of a team that is going from strength to strength. Getting involved in IMRA and being elected to the national executive. Meeting President Mary McAleese. The friends I have made in the fantastic bunch of people that make up SEMRA.
Name: Ray Bradfield
Lives: Co. Waterford;
in self-imposed exile from The People's Republic of Cork
Occupation: Dentist
Interests: Music, chess, politics, amateur dramatics, history, poetry, astronomy, hillwalking and curries.
In the team since: 2004
Current position in the team: Deputy Team Leader
Previous positions held: Treasurer
Lowlights: Failing to appear bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at work after a fruitless all-night search over the far end of the Galtys.
Highlights: Friendship, abseils, off-road excursions, winching, banter, searching, finding, learning, teaching, leading, following; most of all, being accepted into the extraordinary group of individuals that is Mountain Rescue in these islands.
Name: David P O Brien
Lives: Co.Waterford (still not okay with admitting to a recent hop over the Tipp border)
Occupation: Teacher, or more often than not, a crowd control specialist.
Interests: Any outdoor activity, lifesaving, reading, anything emergency service related.
In the team since: February 2008
Current position in the team: Full Team Member
Lowlights: I am too new to the team to have a lowlight, but I do hate the fact that Jimmy Barry always gets there first.
Highlights: Croagh Patrick; the middle-of-the-night callout; coming off the Wicklow Mountains one afternoon after an all-night search in heavy snow. Just as we came below cloud base, the first sight my party witnessed was a RAF Sea King and the IAC AW 139 in the air together. We all just stopped and, I think, savoured a small piece of history.
I have read Dr James A Begg’s account of British Royal Navy Rescue Helicopters (based at HMS Gannet) in his book, Rescue 177, where he describes going to shouts in the Atlantic in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He refers to re-fuelling in Derry and flying very low along the shores of Lough Foyle for fear of being shot out of the sky. Haven’t we moved forward a long way in a short number of years?