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HIKING LONG DISTANCES in Ireland solo can, once in a while, be a transcendental experience.
Not always, obviously. Not even all that often. There can be hours of tramping up and down trails in incessant rain surrounding by Sitka spruce plantations catching only hints of the stunning scenery to come.
The views, when the landscape opens up and the clouds finally lift, act as a reward for all the relative drudgery.
Four years ago I climbed the 50 highest peaks in Ireland for the LauraLynn children’s hospice. The challenge was almost upended by Covid – but working within the lockdowns and with the help of multiple generous supporters I managed to raise almost €20,000.
I happened to experience one of the most beautiful moments of my life during that period.
It was towards the end of the challenge. There were only a few more peaks left to go before I reached the magic ’50′ mark. I was on the second-highest mountain in Ireland – Cnoc Na Péiste in the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks, not far from Carrauntoohil.
Even as Kerry mountains go, the terrain there is tough going. As I got through the worst of the climb the weather suddenly opened up and the scenery was unbelievable. What happened next is difficult to describe but it was something akin to a spritual experience. It all came to me – the money I’d raised and the reasons I’d done it. It sunk in all of a sudden. Tears started coming into my eyes.
When people ask me why I do these challenges, yes, obviously I mention that moment. But the hours and hours of straightforward, solitary trekking are an integral part of it too.
There’ll be a bit of that, I imagine, tomorrow morning when I begin my next challenge across the road from a Lidl and a mid-size Spar in a Dublin 16 car park.
Marlay Park, in the south Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham, is the traditional starting point for the Wicklow Way, a 140km long-distance trail which I’ll be attempting to complete in three days over the course of this weekend instead of the more leisurely five-to-seven.
It’s a lot of walking – between 40 and 45km each day. The long – and hopefully, dryish – summer evenings should help me complete my goal by sometime late on Sunday night.
I try and do a charity challenge of some kind every year – usually for a different charity each time. Sometimes hikes are involved, but back in 2021 I did a marathon every week across the year – also for LauraLynn.
But I’m not a celebrity, an influencer or a professional adventurer – so partly due to pressures elsewhere in my life I’m tailoring this challenge to fit into a relatively brief period, compared to my island-spanning 2020 travels.
This time I’m raising money for suicide and self-harm charity Pieta House.
While it’s tempting, at this point, to list statistics about mental health and suicide in Ireland, there’s really no need. Almost everyone reading this will have been affected by suicide, either directly or indirectly.
Many of us, myself included, have struggled with depression and anxiety and continue to struggle. Pieta is an organisation that looks after people in their darkest hours.
It was there for me when someone very close to me died by suicide. He and I were friends since before the awkward teenage years. I don’t know anybody else like him. He was a great friend. As funny and fun to be around as he was, he also struggled mentally. Of course, sometimes the funniest and most charismatic people – who bring so much light to those around them – can be struggling inside.
I was aware of the existence of Pieta, but was largely unaware of the services they provided. I was struggling very badly with my grief – to a point where my own family and friends were worried about me. Someone suggested that I contact Pieta.
I didn’t know that as well as providing counselling for people in distress, they also do so for people bereaved by suicide. When I spoke to the lady on their helpline I was barely able to complete a sentence. Pieta had a counsellor sitting in my living room speaking to me the very next day.
So I’m doing this to raise money for Pieta House – and to remember one of my best friends.
Talk the talk
There has been a big push in recent years for men to talk about their mental health struggles – a genuine push. There’s more acceptance towards men who reveal they struggle mentally now. Unfortunately in my own experience, with myself and my friends, I find that men have only begun to talk about talking about it – rather than actually talking about it.
My advice would be – rather than telling a male friend ‘if you need to talk, I’m here’, just go and actually talk to them. You might have to be persistent. Make sure they know they’re loved, that they’re not alone and not a nuisance or a burden. If a friend is irritable or withdrawing from their usual activities, try and investigate – because something deeper could be going on. Men need to get out of their comfort zone with other men in order to help each other.
Walk the walk
I’ve been making preparations over the last few weeks – keeping fit and training when I can. It’s Ireland, so I’m not that worried about the weather – it’s always a matter of preparing for the worst no matter the time of year or the forecast. Given the ambitious distances each day I am a little concerned about my feet so I’ll be taking whatever measures I can to ward off any blisters that might hamper my progress.
Home, on Friday night, will be a hiking shelter just off the track, high in the Wicklow hills. I’ll be skirting the banks of Glendalough and heading south up the Spinc sometime on Saturday and hopefully putting my feet up in the village of Clonegall, just across the border in Carlow, sometime the following night.
I’m travelling solo for most of the journey but I won’t be venturing off the waymarked trail except when I stop each night. One of the most important things I’ve learned in my years hiking in Ireland is never to lose respect for the landscape and the conditions. People can underestimate an Irish mountain – just because it’s an Irish mountain and not, say, an alp.
We all need to look after ourselves on our journeys – even when it seems like sometimes we’re walking alone.
If we do, hopefully those moments of elation will come along when we least expect them.
You can find Jack’s iDonate page for his Wicklow Way challenge here and he’ll be documenting his journey on Instagram here.
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If you have been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this article, you can reach out for support through the following helplines. These organisations also put people in touch with long-term supports:
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Doesn’t matter the figures……had to be spent, a no brainer
@Kevvy kerrr: Yep, quite happy with whatever was spent, considering what money the government waste on rubbish
Poor souls. Sounds like an awful death. They’re such smart and peaceful creatures too.
I was probably in the anti-zoo camp in my teens. But like so many things you understand the complexity and nuance of these things as you get older. The ethical zoos with good intentions (not the vulgar Pokémon collections of rare species) do amazing work. It’s all so relative. Ideally they live peacefully in the wild. But humans have an appalling record when it comes to mistreating animals. So captivity in safety, out of the way of trophy hunters and other rancid members of our species isn’t the worst scenario. We’re all hemmed in in some fashion no matter how much we rattle our cages.
Our own knuckle draggers are in the news this week. I do my best to keep the rage in check but I truly hate these people and wish nothing but the worst on them. Low lives you’d love to see stripped of their citizenship so that’s one less thing we are forced to have in common with them. Lowest of the low.
@SerotoninWars: very deep & thought provoking
@Kevvy kerrr: Thanks Kevvy :)
And in Ireland, we now accept halal, I do not hear any Irish animal welfare charities condemning such an atrocious and sickening practice. Of course not, in modern, diverse and tolerant Ireland, we must not offend, must be all equal, must conform, must stay quiet, must be criticised if you ask questions.
@Fintan Pox: says the FF fan boy
@Mick O’K: So you disagree?
@Fintan Pox: I agree Halal especially with the no-stun aspect is absolutely barbaric. You can throw Kosher in the mix too. I’ve read about and watched some harrowing scenes from the slaughter floors of both. When I was younger to be precise. I can’t stomach it anymore. That doesn’t give ‘our’ methods a pass at all with some of the most upsetting cruelty imaginable happening in these slaughterhouses.
I’m not saying for a second that this covers all Muslim’s (it’s the Guardian!) but it’s a bit of context to the wider debate. I’ve given up on us making many advances in my lifetime. You get worn down and reduced to the most marginal of gains. But for crying out loud, at least stun them! If your god requires this level of suffering, maybe it’s time to ask some questions. That goes for all of them.
The main thing for me is why on earth we are still at a stage where we feel the need to slit ANY creature’s throat and watch it bleed out, never mind with this additional level of cruelty in the mix.
The meat industry does its best to give its products cute fun names, especially in the fast food industry. It’s deliberate, of course. Just like so many things where severing the end product from the reality of how it got there, is paramount. There are a lot of people who would choose to eat something else if their colourful box of meat meant doing the slitting, chopping, beheading and bleeding out themselves. Only the most brutal horror flicks get anywhere near the shocking reality of the meat industry.
@SerotoninWars: don’t eat meat.
@offside again: I don’t! :)
@SerotoninWars: I’d never have guessed.
Animals like sheep would prefer halal to wolves I’m sure. I’m not defending it. I’m sure it’s painful but it’s relatively quick in the scheme of things.
You’re right about the ‘meat industry’. That doesn’t mean eating meat is wrong though. But it should actually be a luxury rather than an everyday thing.
@offside again: There’s actually some middle ground here for once! :)
I get that it’s a hugely complex area (like nearly everything!) but there is a world of difference between the type of old-school farm-to-table setup and the industrialised conveyor belt we’ve ended up with. Capitalism demands faster and more without thinking about anything outside of accumulating more paper and coins.
Even if people don’t particularly care about animals, some of the conditions human beings have to work in are harrowing. The USA is of course amongst the worst offenders. The level of accidents, lifelong injuries and appalling treatment of the workers is off the chart. All to keep a conveyor belt of animals heading into the mouths of people who expect meat at every single meal.
They often use cheap immigrant labour and when things go wrong there is practically nothing in the way of compensation. In comes the next poor and desperate person to replace them. All to keep the main conveyor belt of profit going. If they don’t care about humans, you can imagine how much they care about the animals.
@SerotoninWars: my brother in law kept sheep and I bought one. First of all we had to catch one. Then his system was to tie it up in his workshop, sit down and drink a couple of beers until the animal relaxed. And without warning then hit it with a lump hammer, before proceeding to kill it.
Butchering an animal yourself is not easy.
Anybody who has a bit of land can keep a pig.
@offside again: I can imagine. None of it is pretty in the end. I’m not overly romanticising that aspect even if I’d like to think there are nicer ways of doing it! But if it has to happen, and enough humans make sure it will, then something that equates to fewer animals, better lives and living conditions up to the point of death, and less recklessness when it comes to the environment, seems more desirable.
The money in the industry is enormous. Huge amounts are spent on lobbying and what is hard to describe as anything other than propaganda. I go back to my point that even if people don’t care about animals they need to wake up to the fact that so much of the denier stuff being pumped into media and social media, is by people with a vested interest in making people apathetic and cynical about any moves to curtail consumption. That might mean less profit shock horror.
The industrial meat industry is a disaster for humans as much as animals.
@offside again: hey bff, so the story goes { allegedly} something like this……. Choose the victim, catch the victim, relax with a few duffs…you know… Just chilling, chewing the fat….& Then when everyone’s got a decent buzz going….. Whip out a lump hammer & whack the poor guy…… Gotta ask…… You been watching reruns of the sopranos??
@SerotoninWars: full belly cheap = big profit. I believe a certain Austrian said : ‘it’s good for leaders that men do not think’.
@Kevvy kerrr: your talent is wasted here !
@Kevvy kerrr: Hey Joey Sheeps! Don’t wurry it’s not a nursing home! It’s a retirement community!
Money well spent Good on zoo
For once money we’ll spent.
Elephant in the room no doubt
@Phillip Smyth: ah Phillip c’mon, that was 2/10 at best….. Larry Betts standard
@Kevvy kerrr: I know couldn’t resist.
They should not be on view, zoos are a thing of the past animals should allowed to run free, that’s the elephant in the room, poor creatures bobbing back and forth in tiny spaces, they are brought to a strange land to here, away form their natural habitat, basically to just die in a tiny area totally alien to them.
@Phillip Smyth: now Kevvy K the elephant in the tiny room.
@Phillip Smyth: 100% right. Zoos are totally inappropriate for these huge majestic creatures. At the very least, they need the space of a national park, for roaming and for privacy away from their most deadly enemy, us.
Give a lump sum from the TV licence
the budget …..vanished from your articles .
Good job you understood we had enough
There is a beautiful tribute in an article on here to the late, great and stunningly beautiful Mary O’Rourke, by Mary Hanafin, whose dad Des was a great man too, opposed, divorce, opposed gay marriage, opposed abortion., all values in Fianna Fail we hold dearly.
There should never be elephants in captivity In such small spaces. These majestic animals can travel hundreds of kilometers per day in the wild. At the very least, they need the size of a national park to roam. No matter what you do in Dublin Zoo, it’s a 28 hectare site. Calling it the African Plains doesn’t make it so. Some animals do ok in captivity, but these huge beautiful beasts need space and privacy. Gorillas, Tigers, Lions, bears and Rhino should only ever be kept in captivity to prevent extinction, and then only in huge national park-size enclosures. If you want to see Elephants, there is about a million hours of footage on YouTube thanks to David Attenborough et al.
Just isolate the elephants who are sick you absolute clowns.
@Buster Lawless: Out of curiosity, how long did you study to be a vet?
@Jack Jack: this is basic science, isolate the spread. These cockatiels are murdering the elephants.
@Jack Jack: study? Buster Lawless? Funniest comment of the day!
@Buster Lawless: the ilness doesnt show until v sick by which time all may have caught it. I got that by reading about it at the tome . You’re the clown
@damien leen: your trolling knows no bounds. Show some respect here punk, elephants are dying.
@uXGdMXx5: tome? Did you learn that in the circus while abusing the donkey? Sicko.
@Buster Lawless: Please join Fianna Fail.
@Fintan Pox: they must remove usc it is essential
@Buster Lawless: No party going to do that, shur jaysus, we had to bring it in when we bankrupted the country, and you gonna vote for us if we got rid of it! Bleedin sap lol
@Buster Lawless: there isn’t the space.
have your say