Two more injured on Reek

Two more injured on Reek


Rowan Gallagher

MAYO Mountain Rescue volunteers rescued two women from the cone of Croagh Patrick last week in two separate incidents. The rescue operations, which came less than two weeks after the injury-blighted Reek Sunday, prompted the organisation to reiterate its urgent calls for work to be done to make pilgrimage trail safe.
On Tuesday of last week, August 3, a Mayo woman sustained injuries to her lower leg at the cone of the mountain at around 4.15pm. A Mayo Mountain Rescue first-response unit, which includes a medic and a radio engineer, was called to the scene.
On inspection, the woman (27) was deemed unable to walk, and it was decided to send up a full stretcher team, who carried the woman down the side of the holy mountain to an ambulance waiting at the foot.
The woman, who was accompanied by a friend, was then taken to Mayo General Hospital. The entire rescue effort took in the region of four hours.
The following day, at roughly 1.45pm, a woman in her 50s from West Meath injured her leg at the same location on the last stretch of the mountain. She also needed to be stretchered to the bottom. The woman, who was accompanied by her husband, was subsequently taken by ambulance to Mayo General Hospital.