Name: Pat Holland
Lives: Cahir, Co.Tipperary.
Occupation: A lapsed archaeologist, ex-museum curator, now a development officer.
Interests: Still archaeology, history, but moving into psychology/personal development and life coaching over the last few years. Hillwalking, some diving/snorkeling, collecting too many books and leylandii hedge bashing.
In the team since: sometime in the late 1980’s. Things not so formal then.
Current position in the team: Elder lemon cluttering up the place.
Previous positions held: Deputy Team leader, Chairman, Trainee co-coordinator, pyrotechnic tester, IMRA Chairman.
Lowlights: driving home one night knowing we had not found the casualty on one of my early call outs was a sobering occasion.
Highlights: Finding the lost person! Being part of a great team that cares for each other and for the casualty. Witnessing the amazing achievements of skilled professional volunteers on major call outs. Knowing that the people coming after me know more than I did then.
I`ve just returned from a weird and wonderful adventure with South Eastern Mountain Rescue. The annual summer pilgrimage in Ireland when 30,000 people walk the stony worn routes to Croagh Patrick.
This year is my first visit, and we travelled 6 hours north to sleep on a gymnasium floor in Rice College in Westport -camping indoors was how they described it - to rise very early and report to Mayo Rescue base and be tasked with work on the mountain. Teams from all over Ireland were sent up in shifts to maintain a chain. Studying all the different teams was interesting in itself.
The cloud came down and we had fog, drizzle and rain continuously until the mountain path was churned like ready mixed concrete! The devoted pilgrims looked like a procession of characters from some strange carnival. Many walked the long route barefoot! One scrambled on all fours. There were little ones, old ones, yoga gurus, the disabled, young roughnecks, women in skimpy outfits, travellers, an American wearing a T shirt with the slogan "I make stuff up" who held an audience all the way and confronted people with silly "Hey, don`t I know you from Tinselstadt in Germany?" then flashed his T shirt.
There were whites and blacks, fat and skeletal, cameras and TV crews, sponsored walkers, ancient eccentrics....mindblowing to watch all of this. And every so often we were given applause as MR crews "doing the good work" (unquote), carrying such heavy loads etc. - mildly embarrassing as we plodded up and down.
We in our team did two stretcher carry-offs. There were 16 casualties taken off during our shift, which ended 6.30pm and the pilgrims were STILL coming up the mountain as the day was ending.
Amazing. Incredible. I slept hardly at all, and arrived home at 1am this morning, filthy, wet and worn out. I think I have my wife worn out replaying the tapes as I remember some of the sights we saw. There were three Germans, I`d guess, who, among the filthy laughing throng, came down from the summit with serious faces; Mum, Dad and daughter maybe 16 years old. They were in rain capes and were slow and immaculately clean while everyone else was muddy and dirty from falls and scrambles. We saw large grown women fall headlong among the rocks, caught off balance, and we had our hands full carrying a casualty already.
The team members were very supportive and we all enjoyed the spectacle and the work. Most amazing of all was to pause, stand and listen……to a sound like distant seagulls, the scrunching of rocks and stones, and the static effect it all created.
You can tell I`ve been impressed….
A huge thank you to all my friends and team mates!!!
Robin
This evening, Monday 28th June, 2010, twenty members of the South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association responded to a call to assist in a large scale search operation in Glenmalure, Co.Wicklow. Earlier in the day, reports were received of a group of four young hillwalkers who had got into difficulty while walking in the area.
A multi-agency response, involving An Garda Siochana, The Coast Guard, The Air Corps, and The Search and Rescue Dogs Association, along with the Glen of Imaal, Dublin & Wicklow and South Eastern Mountain Rescue Teams, was successful in locating the four safe and well.
In fading light and deteriorating weather conditions, the team was stood down at 2015 hrs.
At around 2pm on Wednesday, June 23rd 2010, Gardai in Tipperary Town alerted the local mountain rescue team to an incident in the Galty Mountains in Co. Tipperary. Two hill walkers were climbing a gully behind Lough Muskry when one of them fell 10 metres and sustained a lower leg injury, his partner rang 999 and raised the alarm. A full team callout was issued to all members of the team and a mountain rescue 4x4 that was in the area at the time was very quickly on scene with rescue equipment and first aid. Two team members made their way to the accident location about 200 metres up very steep and dangerous ground to a ledge where the man had landed after his fall. As this was happening, the Irish Coast Guard S61 helicopter from Shannon had been tasked to go the the area and assist in the rescue. A mountain rescue paramedic administered first aid and when the helicopter arrived, it lowered a stretcher and one of its crew to the site. Working together they managed to get the man into the stretcher and he was air-lifted from the ledge and flown direct to Waterford Regional Hospital. The other hill walker was accompanied down to safety and driven back to his car.
SEMRA would like to thank the Coast Guard crew for their assistance today and also the Gardai in Tipperary Town along with its own volunteer members for their quick response.
SEMRA is a 999/112 24/7/365 day voluntary mountain search and rescue service covering all the south east of Ireland.
Name: Grainne Ryan
Lives: Tipperary. Proud to be from the Peoples Republic of Cork .
Occupation: IT Dept for a General Hospital in Kilkenny
Interests: Mountain Rescue, outdoor pursuits(mountains, climbing, running, ballooning etc...) reading, first aid, guiding, anything involving snow, helicopters. Overall having FUN in the great outdoors!! Partaking in exciting challenges to fundraise for charities close to my heart. Astronomy.
In the team since: Feb 2008
Current position in the team: Team Secretary & Full Team Member
Lowlights: Seeing my first mountain fatality on the scottish mountains during winter training.
Highlights: When the pager goes off, team friendships, the Lug callout last year, completing my Wilderness-EMT, seeing the gratitude in the faces of the people we rescue, being a small part of the BIG picture that is Mountain Rescue Ireland, learning loads of new skills/talents from extraordinary Mountain Rescue & other Emergency Services personnel. Seeing 100's of shooting stars in the Knockmealdowns on a night exercise.
At around 3pm on Saturday, March 27th, 2010, SEMRA was called out to deal with another incident on the Comeragh Mountains in Co Waterford. A member of a walking group had fallen and sustained a lower leg injury. The Mountain Rescue team issued a full team call out to all its members and within twenty minutes had a 4x4 vehicle and six members in the Nire Valley. The team also called the Marine Rescue Coordinating Centre in Dublin and requested the assistance of the Coast Guard helicopter from Waterford. The helicopter was tasked to go to the area known as the "Knockanaffrin Ridge" where it located the injured walker. After her injury was treated the casualty was winched aboard and flown to Waterford Regional Hospital. Mountain Rescue members accompanied the remainder of the walking group safely off the mountains.
This is the second incident in the Comeragh Mountains in the last three days and the fourth that Mountain Rescue and the Coast Guard have dealt with in the South East in the last ten days. Team Leader, Michael Power, said "for a voluntary organisation, the last few days have been very busy, but all the training we do with the crews of the Coast Guard S61 in Waterford means we can respond quickly and make the best use of all our combined resources available for the benefit of the people that were injured and lost".
SEMRA would like to thank every one for their help today, the Crew of the helicopter, the walking group, its own members, and especially all at Hanora's Cottage in the Nire valley for allowing the team access to phones, as mobile phone reception was very bad in the area.
Six people were rescued on the mountains of the South East of Ireland today, March 26th, 2010. The first incident took place at around 2.30pm on the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford, where four people were air-lifted by the Sikorsky S61 Coast Guard helicopter based in Waterford. The four had been out walking when one of the group fell and injured his leg. The helicopter was tasked to evacuate the injured walker, and the mountain rescue team was asked to go to the area and assist if needed. The injured walker was transferred to hospital in Waterford.
Just as Mountain Rescue members were returning home, Gardai in Tipperary town alerted the team to yet another incident, this time on the Galty Mountains in Tipperary. Two walkers had become lost in thick fog and mist in the area around Galtybeg and could not find their way down. The Mountain Rescue team responded with a full team call-out, and set up an incident base at the top of the Black Road on the southern side of the mountains. The team sent rapid response search teams into the area and one of those teams found the walkers in the valley above Glengarra wood at around 18.30. The two walkers were very wet and cold but in otherwise good condition. They were given extra clothing and assisted off the mountains to a team landrover which transported them back to their car.
SEMRA would like to thank all the agencies involved today, SARDA "Search and Rescue Dog Association", Gardai, Coast Guard and its own members. SEMRA is a 999/112 mountain search and rescue team that covers all the mountains of the South East of Ireland.
End
A hill walker was rescued on the Galty mountains on St Patrick's Day having fallen and sustained a leg injury. At around 2.30pm, Gardai in Cahir, Co. Tipperary, received a 999/112 call from a group out walking on the mountains, saying one of their group was injured and they requested Mountain Rescue assistance. The Mountain Rescue team (who were in Clonmel preparing to take part in the St Patricks day parade) went on full team call out and sent three vehicles and seventeen team members to the area, known as "Pigeon Rock Glen", where the accident had happened. SEMRA also requested the assistance of the Coast Guard S61 helicopter from Waterford and it was tasked by the Marine Rescue Coordinating Centre in Dublin to go to the area immediately. As Mountain Rescue team members arrived at the accident site, the helicopter also arrived and in deteriorating weather conditions, the man was winched aboard and flown direct to Cork Airport where an ambulance was waiting and took him to Cork University Hospital with a suspected broken leg. The remaining 10 members of the walking group were accompanied off the mountains by SEMRA members.
SEMRA would like to thank the Gardai, MRCC Dublin, the walking group, and the crew of the IRCG S61 for their help today and we wish the injured man a speedy recovery.
On Monday February 15th 2010, SEMRA received a donation of €911 from a group it assisted in the Galty Mountains last October. Following their rescue, Carrigtwohill Foroige wondered how they could thank SEMRA for their hard work in locating them on the night. The old hill-walking saying comes to mind "if at first you get lost, get back up that mountain" and that’s what they did, organising a sponsored walk up Galtymore. So the group joined four SEMRA members on a return visit to the Galtys, after which the money raised was presented to SEMRA Chairperson, Irene Codd, in the Mountain Lodge Youth Hostel in Glengarra Wood. The youth group was given a guided tour of SEMRA’s new command and control vehicle, “Sierra Victor”, which had its first operational outing on the the night in October. SEMRA would like to thank Carrigtwohill Foroige for their hard work and look forward to meeting them again.
Name: Terry Brophy
Lives: Kilkenny, originally from Wicklow, so Hurling jibes don't work.
Occupation: Gentleman Farmer
Interests: Mountains, climbing, biking, kayaking, Land Rovers, technical rescue, very rare steak and the team choir.
In the team since: 1994
Current position in the team: Equipment Officer & Team Clown.
Previous positions held: Training Officer, Deputy Team Leader, Team Leader.
Lowlights: The Air Corps helicopter crash in Tramore.
Highlights: Every time the pager goes off, any excuse to get out! The craic & banter in the team
The South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association is calling on all hill walkers to exercise extreme caution on the mountains of the South East over the next few days. Team Leader, Michael Power, said, "as more snow is expected in the region we are urging hill walkers and climbers to stay off the roads and the mountains. Conditions under foot are extremely dangerous with ice being the main problem, even the best boots won't stop you slipping".