Blacksod remembers R116 crew who ‘gave their lives to serve and to save’

REMEMBERING FALLEN COLLEAGUES  Representatives of each of the emergency services involved in last year’s search carry wreaths in a guard of honour at Blacksod Lighthouse and Pier to mark the first anniversary of the Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter 116 crash at Blackrock Island. From left: Michael Cattigan, RNLI; Lt Commander Stuart Armstrong, Irish Naval Service; Garda Sinéad Barrett An Garda SíochΡna; Michael Hurst, Irish Coast Guard and Vincent Sweeney, Commissioners of Irish Lights. Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Poignant ceremonies at Blacksod mark the first anniversary of the death of R116 crew

Anton McNulty

A year after ‘pain, desolation and death’ struck the families of the four crew members of Rescue 116, they returned to Blacksod to remember and pay their respects to their loved ones in a series of poignant ceremonies.
A congregation of up to 300 people, including relatives, friends, colleagues of the four crew members as well as members of the emergency services and the local community, gathered in the cold wind and rain around the helipad at Blacksod Lighthouse where wreaths were laid to remember those who died on R116 on March 14, 2017.
The crew consisting of Capt Dara Fitzpatrick, Capt Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and CiarΡn Smith died when their helicopter collided with Blackrock Island, while enroute to Blacksod to refuel before returning to their base in Dublin.
At the memorial Mass, which was held earlier that morning in nearby St Brendan’s Church in Tirrane, Parish Priest, Fr Kevin Hegarty said the crew’s vocation was ‘to serve and to save’ and that ‘they died in the course of their duty’.
As the south-easterly gale battered the coast of the peninsula, five wreaths, including one in memory of Caitriona Lucas - a member of the Doolin Coast Guard in Co Clare who died while on a mission in September 2016 - were laid in the middle of the helipad by a representative of each of the families.

Candlelit vigil
John Gallagher, the chairman of the local Comharcumman Ionad Deirbhle, told the families that the local community did all the could during the search to find their loved ones and it had saddened them greatly that the remains of Paul Ormsby and CiarΡn Smith were not recovered.
Speaking on behalf of CHC Ireland, the company who employed the crew members, Peter O’Hagan paid tribute to all those who were involved in the search and said they will always be indebted to the four deceased crew members.
The one year anniversary commemorations began at 12.45am on the morning of March 14, the time the helicopter lost contact a year ago. Relatives and over 100 people from the community and beyond held a candlelit vigil along with four minutes of silence on the hill at Faulmore, overlooking Blackrock Island.
All lights were then turned off bar four LED lights representing the four crew members which were lit up from Glosh Tower across Blacksod Bay. A lone piper also played a lament for the crew members.
At the emotional memorial Mass, Fr Hegarty – who was accompanied by Fr John Loftus and Fr Stephen Duffy, an uncle of Captain Mark Duffy – told the grieving families that the congregation ‘stand in solidarity’ with them.
“There is no easy way to get through grief ... grief is the price we pay for love,” he said while adding that the community were always thinking of them long after the search was officially over.
He told the families that while the name of Blacksod would always be engraved in their hearts, ‘we would like you to know you will always be engraved on our hearts’.
He added that while Ireland had changed in recent years, the tragedy showed that the sense of community was still very much alive.
“It took a tragedy to remind us of the strength of the community in Ireland. Ireland has changed in so many ways ... but this tragedy brought home to us that community is still strong. That was shown at the time of the search.”

The sea’s majesty and terror
Fr Kevin Hegarty also reflected on how the sea was both a ‘source of substance and a source of sorrow’ and ‘here we know its majesty and its terror’.
The Mullet peninsula has known its fair share of tragedies over the years and he noted that the four lighthouses located around the peninsula testified to ‘the the potential treachery lurking in the water’.
“The archive of the [Mullet] peninsula is sometimes drenched in tears, and another sad chapter in that archive had been added ... It has brought us pain, desolation and death,” Fr Kevin told the congregation.
In the past year, the community have remembered the ten people, including a 15-year-old cabin boy, who died aboard the SS Tusker, a British Merchant ship, which was struck by a German torpedo during World War I.
In October 1927, ten men from the Inishkea Islands died when ‘a calm evening turned to violence’ and the deaths ‘broke the spirit of the community and ended the life of the island community’.
Fr Kevin recalled the words of Maurya, a character in JM Synge’s ‘Riders to the Sea’ following the death of her last son. “They’re all gone now and there isn’t anymore the sea can do to me ... I’ll have no call now to be up crying and praying when the wind breaks from the south, and you can hear the surf is in the east, and the surf is in the west, making a great stir with the two noises, and they hitting one on the other.”
Following the brief ceremony at Blacksod Lighthouse, a representative from the various agencies involved in the search, brought the wreaths to Blacksod Pier. They were led by lone piper, Kian Moore, from Carrowholly, who played ‘The Dawning of the Day’.
Members of the Gardaí, Irish Coast Guard, the Naval Service, RNLI and the Commission of Irish Lights along with the local community formed a guard of honour for the families of the deceased crew members.
The wreaths were transferred onto the naval ship, LE Niamh, who accompanied by Irish Lights ship, ‘Granuaile’, and the Achill and Ballyglass lifeboats, steamed to Blackrock Island, the site of the accident. There, the wreaths were cast into the Atlantic in memory of those who gave their lives on March 14, 2017.