South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association Blog

St. Patrick's Day 2013 was an eventful one for the South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association. Members were out in force taking part in the Parade in Clonmel Town, County Tipperary. All 3 team vehicles assisted by team members took part in festivities. As the parade wound its way through the streets of Clonmel a familiar sound was heard as team members phones sprung into action alerting them to an incident in the Comeragh Mountains.

Two Ladies who had been out walking in the vicinity of Coumshingaun Lake had gotten into difficulty. One lady fell and sustained a lower leg injury. They immediately contacted Emergency Services and South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association members rapidly made their way to the site of the incident.

An Incident Base was established in Kilclooney Woods which lies in the direction of the Lemybrien - Carrick on Suir Road. Once located and assessed assistance was sought from MRCC and Rescue 117 was tasked to the scene. The lady with the lower leg injury was airlifted to Waterford Regional Hospital for further treatment. The other walker was assisted off the hill by SEMRA members.

Should any walkers need our assistance on the mountains, please call 999 or 112 and ask for Mountain Rescue.

South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association is an emergency 24/ 7/ 365, voluntary Search and Rescue team covering all the Mountains of the South East of Ireland and is funded mainly by donation and public generosity. This year 2013 the Team also have a large fundraising project on the go. Our aim is to build a vehicle storage unit based in the South East.This however is a massive undertaking and means we require a large boost of income to facilitate our dreams.

Name: Laura Esmonde

Lives: Tipperary Town

Occupation: Retail Sales Facilitator i.e. A checkout operator

In the team since: 2011

Current position in the team: Full Team Member

Lowlights: Standing around in the cold in all weather conditions discussing ad infinitum how we could have carried the stretcher a bit better or improved on that days training in some way and just when you think it's finally time to go into the car and warm up somebody else will keep the show going with some other point that has to be made.

Highlights: Anything to do with going in the helicopters. Even putting someone on the heli is fun you have to remember not to smile too much or the person in the stretcher will think you’re sadistic but the helicopters are definitely one of the best bits. Helping out at Croagh Patrick last year was good too (there was 2 heli evacuations)

South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association is now recruiting new mountain rescue team members to commence training in September 2013.

The team is looking for hill walkers and climbers who have good mountaineering and team working skills and a good knowledge of the mountains of the South East. A significant time commitment can be expected to be involved in training and callouts.

If you have the skills and the commitment to volunteer as a mountain rescue team member, email info@semra.ie to receive an application form. For further information about the team, check out www.semra.ie

South Eastern Mountain Rescue Association is an emergency  24/ 7/ 365 , voluntary Search and Rescue team covering all the Mountains of the South East of Ireland.