Reek Sunday pilgrims, hear our plea

Communities take clean-water campaign to pilgrimage

Áine Ryan

Coastal communities plan to gather at Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday, July 29, to raise awareness of their campaign for clean water. They believe they have no option but to take this action on a day when there is a national and international focus on the annual pilgrimage and the area.
Despite the promise of clean water before every general election in the past four decades, successive governments have failed to deliver this ‘basic human right’ to these Mayo residents. The communities hope that highlighting their plight to the thousands of pilgrims making the ascent will help prompt the Government and relevant authorities into action.
The members of the campaign, called ‘We Need Mains Water Now – Belclare to Louisburgh’, will not disrupt next weekend’s pilgrimage. Indeed they say they will, as is the tradition, assist those making the precipitous climb.    
Speaking to The Mayo News last night (Monday) on behalf of the cross-community campaign committee, Chris Grady of Murrisk Development Association, said: “We regret that this action has become necessary due to the lack of commitment on the part of the authorities to provide our communities with the basic human right of the mains water supply that has been promised at every election over the past 40 years.
“Despite these promises, there is still no mains water supply in this area to cater for the needs of the local people, businesses, schools or to provide a suitable public supply for visitors. All current local water supplies are privately sourced from the mountain streams and a few wells.
“The communities have struggled to keep the taps running at enormous cost to themselves by installing treatment units in their homes and businesses where practicable. Residents in older homes have to fit filters that need replacing every few weeks during heavy rainfall.”
Whilst emphasising that ‘pilgrims will not be prevented from undertaking their pilgrimage’ – an action that the campaign originally considered – Mr Grady said the committee asks ‘pilgrims to respect and support the people who find it necessary to stand in front of them on this day of pilgrimage to our holy mountain in order to obtain this most basic and necessary human right’.

Major mountain rescue operation
MEANWHILE Mayo Mountain Rescue Team (MMRT) is preparing for ‘the biggest co-ordinated mountain rescue operation in Ireland’ with 140 mountain-rescue personnel from across the country and the UK converging supporting the operation.
“Though it is the busiest weekend operationally for the Mayo team, separately there were over 40 callouts in Mayo in 2017 with an additional 15 callouts on Reek weekend last year,” an MMRT spokesman said.
He told The Mayo News that there had been 20 callouts so far this year, with around 80 percent being to Croagh Patrick.
MMRT advises climbers to make safety a priority; to wear proper shoes and waterproof clothing; to bring food and water; to be mindful of fitness levels; and to be vigilant of weather forecasts and conditions, since temperatures can vary by as much as seven degrees between sea-level and the summit.
Speaking about safety matters too, Father Charlie McDonnell, of Westport Parish, said: “We are very conscious of the present condition of the mountain, and my understanding is that an expert is due to do a trial on part of the cone to examine the logistics of remedial works. We encourage people to be very careful, to only climb as far as they can, and if they should be going to their GP, to go to their GP and don’t be climbing the mountain.”