Ollie reaches his peak thrice on Croagh Patrick

WHILE Kilkee Marine Rescue primarily concentrate on rescuing or recovering people from the water, one of their members became exceptionally well acquainted with Croagh Patrick in Mayo last Sunday.

 

Carrigaholt man Ollie O’Gorman, who lives in Kilmaley, climbed the 762-metre mountain three times inside five hours in order to raise funds for Kilkee Marine Rescue.

“It went very well. I did all three climbs in eight hours, 45 minutes,” Ollie told The Clare Champion this week.

“I started at 9am. I took a break in between climbs. The first climb took me two hours and 30 minutes. The second one took two hours 50 minutes and the last one was about three hours, 25 minutes, which was the toughest of them all. The knees didn’t know what happened them I’d say,” he laughed.

Ironically, Ollie’s Kilkee Marine Rescue bleeper went off, during one of his climbs. “I was actually halfway up the mountain when I was paged. I couldn’t do anything at that stage,” he said. The alert was linked to a 17-year-old visitor to Kilkee sustaining head injuries in the resort last Sunday afternoon.

Ollie  has been a member of the voluntary rescue group for about four years and was keen to come up with an innovative fundraising venture.

“Funding is very tight at the moment so that’s why I’d try something different and something that wasn’t going to just target West Clare people. We got a good bit of support up in Mayo. I don’t think anyone has ever climbed Croagh Patrick three times in 12 hours or definitely three times in nine hours. Not anybody from Ireland anyway,” he said.

Last Sunday’s trio of climbs means that Ollie has now scaled Croagh Patrick four times. “I climbed it once about 10 years ago. This time, I did it on my own except for the last climb. A friend of mine, Maria Lennon from Ennis, who runs marathons, came up the last time with me to give me that bit of support for the last one.

“That was going to be the toughest one. The rescue service also came up to Mayo. They had a permit for the day and were collecting money,” Ollie explained.

When he reached the top of Croagh Patrick, Ollie was accorded a rousing reception by walkers had reached the top in separate walks.

“When I got up to the top, the cheer I got was like something at the Olympics. People all through the day had known that there was this guy doing it. I suffered on Monday but I’m grand today (Tuesday). I was as stiff as a poker but I’m well loosened out now,” he said.

Ollie isn’t ruling out a return to Croagh Patrick next year and maybe even attempting to climb the mountain a few more times.

“Hopefully, it’s something I’m going to keep doing and maybe push it a bit more next year,” he suggested.

Since Kilkee Marine Rescue was established by Manuel Di Lucia in 1981, the service has been responsible for saving the lives of over 500 people and recovering more than 40 ‘lost souls’. “We’re on call 24/7. We have to be on our toes, ready to go,” Ollie noted.