OPINION
First, a confession: Despite the spectacular beauty of the magnificent MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, snugly enveloping Killarney – the town in the park that I call home – I have never climbed a mountain.
To do so would hold just about as much appeal as presenting myself for a root canal or being forced to sit through an episode of Strictly Come Dancing.
That piece of useless personal trivia aside, I fully appreciate the lure and challenge of the mountains for the thousands of people that scale the peaks annually and I absolutely acknowledge the value of mountaineering and the great outdoors to the Killarney economy.
It is said that if you build it they will come but, in this instance, the man above had all the ground work done and the easy bit was to promote it.
As Kerry swaps its colour shade to Yellow from Orange this Thursday, we salute the volunteers of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team for whom I have always had complete and utter admiration.
If Oscars were bandied about for sheer dedication and community commitment, with no monetary gain and only a sense of pride in a job well done on offer, the team members would be right up there alongside Disney and Spielberg in terms of accomplishments.
They say you should never meet your heroes but, over the years, I have had cause to get to know many of the men and women who have regularly risked their lives to help others – usually strangers – who have encountered difficulties either climbing or descending the picturesque mountains that wrap Killarney like the perfect Christmas gift.
They are everyday men and women, with their own lives to lead, their own careers to mind and their own families and friends to be with yet, when the call is made, they drop everything and think of nothing else only of the need to rush to assist those who require their help.
Heroes are ordinary people who, by their deeds and their impact, make themselves extraordinary. They don’t wear capes but you will usually find them attired in thermal base layers and crampons and probably carrying an ice axe, a compass and a first aid kit.
The Kerry Mountain Rescue Team was back in the spotlight over the Christmas season with two very testing emergencies to respond to on the mountains and they set about those tasks with the quiet efficiency and professionalism for which they are renown.
But it didn’t end there.
As the images (above) they have shared on their social media platforms clearly illustrate, since Sunday last they have been out in force, at all hours and in absolutely dreadful conditions, to ensure the people of Kerry were minded during the big freeze, the likes of which the county hasn’t experienced for several years.
They willingly and generously put their personnel, their experience and their fleet of vehicles at the disposal of the Kerry County Council led severe weather assessment team and played a huge role in reaching vulnerable people with varying needs to ensure they were properly looked after.
They delivered medical supplies, groceries and other goods to those that were cut off and stranded by heavy snow. They helped clear badly blocked roads of accumulations of snow and debris that had rendered them impassable. And they willingly transported health care workers to and from hospitals and other medical facilities to ensure they could look after patients in need of care.
These selfless volunteers should be told, at every available opportunity, and then reminded again, that their work, their dedication, their expertise and their generosity of spirit is greatly appreciated. Each and every one of them has played a wonderful role throughout this long and difficult week but, as those that know them best will testify, that’s what they do and they just get on with it.
They weren’t alone, of course, as Kerry struggled to cope with and fight back against sub-zero temperatures that plummeted as low as minus seven with people confined to their homes and worrying when it would end to allow them to get back to life as they knew it.
Kerry County Council crews played an absolute blinder, ensuring the priority routes were gritted every evening and again in the early hours of the morning while the county was in a deep slumber.
If further salting was required, they hit the road again and, in the towns and villages throughout the county, mini-gritters and men with shovels and spades did their utmost to make the streets and footpaths safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The Civil Defence, the Order of Malta and the Red Cross weren’t slow to roll up their sleeves either, ensuring those in need of essential dialysis, chemotherapy and other essential medical interventions were transported safely to hospitals and back home again.
Farmers with sturdy tractors and front-loaders helped to keep the show on the road – and the snow off the road – and assisted those that needed support while the St Vincent de Paul, meals-and-wheels personnel, Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue and other groups and charities were preparing, dispatching and delivering hot food to homes at a rapid pace all week.
ESB crews and Uisce Éireann teams battled with ferocious conditions, in very testing terrain, to restore utilities to those that had been cut off by the elements, particularly in the northern part of the county, and the Gardaí and fire service were on stand-by at a moment’s notice to offer support whenever and wherever it was needed.
There were the closer-to-home heroes too, of course, keeping an close eye on vulnerable or elderly neighbours, delivering groceries, food and prescriptions, clearing driveways and footpaths, ordering oil deliveries, walking dogs, freeing blocked drains, tending to animals and helping to give that car stuck in six inches of snow a firm nudge in the right direction to enable the driver to continue the journey.
There were many others – too many to mention here – who played a huge part and they can all take a bow and feel immensely proud of the great role they played.
The local politicians too deserve special mention, some for ordering or personally delivering and spreading grit and others for keeping the public informed on the specific detail of what was being done to help them, the relevant helplines to contact and who to call if they needed support.
It has to be acknowledged that the enormous effort put in by the Healy-Raes didn’t go unnoticed as, not for the first time during a weather emergency, they put their fleet of agricultural machinery and crews at the disposal of the public and repeatedly stressed, on various platforms, that anybody that needed any assistance to clear roads or source supplies just needed to dial the numbers provided.
Compare that admirable gesture of public service to the stance adopted by another politician, Aontú leader Peader Tóibín, whose comments on social media led to stinging criticism from many quarters and caused some upset in Kerry.
He is perfectly entitled to express his opinion, of course, and we respect him for doing so but, perhaps isolated from or unaware of the dangers, the misery and the huge interruption to their lives that people in Kerry and elsewhere were experiencing, the Meath East TD posted a rather bizarre message on X regarding the decision to issue an Orange weather warning that, in fact, many people affected felt should have been upgraded to Red.
”I know that the Irish people love talking about the weather but issuing a status Orange low temperature warning for a temperature of -5 is crazy,” he wrote.
His message added: “People should take care on the roads & mind older friends & family but this is not abnormal winter weather”.
On the contrary, Peader, it was anything but normal as many of the 1,437 voters that supported your party in Kerry in the November general election should be able to testify.
The difference in attitude and approach and the sensitivities displayed for those experiencing worries and difficulties over the past four days, perhaps, is why one family based in the small village of Kilgarvan has exactly the same number of Dáil seats as a national party that claims to be Ireland’s fastest growing political movement.
Anyway, once again, thank you and well done to all who helped. You were magnificent.
Now, let the big thaw commence and let us all return to a life that’s not abnormal and hope that the weather will be as calm in Kerry as it obviously has been in Meath East.
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