Mayo Darkness Into Light events launched

READY TO GO AGAIN Pictured at the launch last Friday in Westport House of all seven Darkness Into Light events in Mayo this May were, from left: Tom McEvoy and Donna Burke, Pieta House; Maeve and Alan Gallagher, Westport Darkness Into Light committee; Cora Staunton, special guest, and Kevin Molloy, ESB. Pic: Linda McNulty

Seven walks to take place across the county

Paul Daly

Preparations in Mayo are underway for Darkness Into Light as the annual event was officially launched on Friday in Westport House. The event will take place in May.
This year’s staging is bigger than ever in Mayo as Castlebar prepares to host their first Darkness Into Light walk, bringing to seven the number of walks in the county.
Alan Gallagher, along with his wife Maeve, are the organisers of the Darkness Into Light event in Westport, which they set up in 2012.
“I’m from Achill originally and I lost my niece in 2003 to suicide. It took me a while to get my head around it but I always wanted to help and it took me until 2012 until I could do anything,” Alan explained.
“When we started out I said ‘if I only helped one person’ then it’s enough for me and obviously we have helped a lot more people judging by the funds and the amount of people taking part.
“The first year that we set up this walk we had 250 people which we thought was a lot and last year we had 1,700 people come to Westport and walk,” Alan said.
“The first year we raised €10,000 and last year we raised over €34,000. It’s growing legs each year.”
On Friday night, Westport’s Darkness Into Light committee presented Pieta House with a cheque to the value of €34,371, which was fundraised from last year’s walk.
Tom McEvoy from Pieta House West credits the event for creating awareness on suicide prevention in the western region.
“An awareness has been raised about Pieta House as a consequence of Darkness Into Light in the communities of Westport and other regions where people attended from to go to Westport in the first year,” he told.
“The colour of Darkness Into Light is predominantly yellow. Yellow implies hope and that’s what we are promoting and professing since day one.
“We’re trying to ask people to look for some hope in their lives when they see despair. It’s becoming a word wide movement.”
Charity founder Joan Freeman set up the first Darkness Into Light walk in Dublin’s Phoenix Park in 2009.
Since then the event has grown significantly throughout Ireland and even overseas as walks are set to take place this year in countries such as England, New Zealand and the United States.
Electric Ireland has been sponsoring the event in Ireland since 2013 and through their Staff Contribution Energy for Generation Fund they have donated over €11 million to various charities nationwide.
“Electric Ireland as part of the ESB group would have been at the forefront of bringing light into peoples homes and the fact that Pieta are bringing darkness into light there is a resonance there for us,” said Electric Ireland’s customer relations manger, Kevin Molloy.
“It’s more than an event now – it’s actually a global movement as it’s on four continents this year.
“There are 150 events nationwide and there are seven in Mayo and it just shows how open minded people are now in Ireland.”
Darkness Into Light takes place on May 6 nationwide at 4.15am. The venues hosting the walk in Mayo are Ballina, Castlebar, Claremorris, Clare Island, Erris, Shrule and Westport.