Another Party!

After the tremendous success of the Demons Festival Children's Hallowe'en Party in the Blue Devon last Monday, where a fabulous time was enjoyed by all manner of witches, ghouls, ghosts, skeletons and pumpkins, it's time for the grown-ups to don their costumes and turn out for the Demon's Ball......

See you there!

Party!

Flower Arranging Demonstration

The Diary recently received this notice from the parishioners of Drumlease;

We the parishioners of Drumlease parish church have tickets on sale at the moment for a flower arranging demonstration by the renowned Timothy Elliott to be held in the Bee Park Centre on Tuesday 6th November at 8pm. The tickets are available from Gillmor's shop and from all parishioners.  We would deeply appreciate if you could buy a ticket at €10 please.  We are trying to defray some of the cost of a recent refurbishment job done on our church.  We apologise for the timing but arranged this a long time ago .  There will be raffles and refreshments on the night also.  Thank you in anticipation - Drumlease Select Vestry.

G.R.A.S.P. Life

Local woman Mary McTernan this week launched a new website for her G.R.A.S.P. Life Foundation, which offers support and counselling to those affected by suicide, or having suicidal thoughts. Mary lost her son, Garry, to suicide in 2004 and has worked tirelessly in the intervening years to try to reduce the incidence of suicide in the North West. Unfortunately, as recent events show, the need for a service such as this is greater than ever.

www.grasplife.ie   

Tel: 087-4188053 or 086-6824760

Active Flag Raising

Some pictures from the recent Active Flag raising ceremony at Drumlease National School. One of only three schools in Leitrim to qualify, Drumlease NS was delighted to have Olympian Colin Griffin to assist in the raising of the flag.

Make your bed (but you don't have to lie in it)

The evenings are starting to draw in. I really love this time of the year, a time for contemplating what was good in the garden this year, what didn’t work and what you would like to do next year.  The seed catalogues will be coming out soon and we can sit by the heat of a crackling fire choosing the varieties of flowers, herbs and vegetables we would like to grow next season.

There is still much to do in the garden.  This week I have been tidying up the vegetable garden and making space for my autumn sown onion sets and garlic, I like to have them all in by the end of this month, but you can still plant garlic depending on variety up to the end of February.

I am basically very lazy, so like to make my life as easy as possible. I don’t enjoy weeding so there are methods I use to keep weeds to an absolute minimum in the garden, it may seem like a bit of work in the beginning, but it really does pay off in the long run.  I have my vegetable garden put down to beds, so it makes life a lot simpler.

I start by clearing the area of any weeds. There aren’t usually many so it doesn’t take long do this part. If the soil is a bit compacted, I stick the fork in and just loosen the soil, I don’t dig it or turn it.  Two or three wheelbarrows of my home made compost are then applied and spread out on the surface. 

Next get some newspapers or paper feed sacks (cut off the ends and flatten them out), you will need to dunk them in the water butt for about 30 seconds, this helps to stop them blowing away and makes it easier to dib through.  Put a layer of newspaper (2 sheets thick) or a single sheet of feed sack down until the area is neatly covered, then cover the paper with a layer of  either grass mowings, spoiled hay or silage or a bit more compost, it just keeps the paper in place so it doesn’t need to be too thick.

You are now ready to plant through the ‘mulch’ you have created.  Using a dibber or stick, you can make planting holes through the damp paper.  Autumn sown onions are very useful, they can be pulled next year when they have bulked up a bit and used in cooking or you could leave them to mature and they will be ready a good six or eight weeks before the main crop ones.  You can find onion sets in the shops now; look out for Radar, senshyu yellow and electric red. 

When planting onion sets, they only need to be put in a very shallow hole, you need to plant them with the blunt end downward otherwise they will grow upside down.  The correct depth is that you should be able to see the pointed top sticking out of the ground.  You may need to cover them with a net or fleece if you find birds are pulling them out, I have to cover everything up as the rooks destroy whatever I put in the ground.  Plant 3-4 inches (7-10cm) apart in all directions, when using beds there is no need to plant in rows so use equidistant spacing.

You can buy garlic now for planting.  Separate the bulb into cloves and plant them nice and deep, I try and put mine in at least 3-4” (7-10cm) deep again, I use equidistant spacing of 4 inches (10cm) in all directions.

Autumn leaves are falling and are a great resource for the garden.  Bang four posts into the ground and put wire round to make a container or you could collect them and put into the big bags you get stone and other aggregate delivered in.  If you can break the leaves up a bit all the better, pick them up with the lawn mower or get the children to jump around on them, this helps to make more edges for fungi to get going on.  Do not be tempted to put autumn leaves into the compost bin as they will not break down in this environment, compost is broken down by bacteria and dead leaves by the action of wet and fungi.  It is worth knowing that burning autumn leaves is very toxic to human health and can be tens of times more carcinogenic (cancer causing) than smoking.  When the leaves have broken down, they are a great addition to potting compost and a good source of humus for the soil.

You can contact me, Nelly Dean on cottagegardenerdromahair@gmail.com if you have any tips questions or comments

Demons Festival Halloween Events

Demons Festival Kids Halloween Party

Calling all Dromahair children!

Get dressed up and win prizes, dance at the devilish disco and grab a gonnie goody bag on Bank Holiday Monday (29th October) at the Blue Devon 4 - 5.30pm. Entrance fee €3 per child, includes goodie bag.

Demons Ball and Horror Quiz

Dromahair Adults Demons Ball at the Blue Devon, Saturday November 3rd, 9pm till late. Fancy dress ball to include Horror Pub Quiz from 9 - 11pm, followed by disco. Entrance fee €5 per person. 4 people per team for pub quiz.

Tea Party for Action Breast Cancer

It's that time of year again folks. Niamh McGowan is holding her 3rd annual Tea Party in aid of Action Breast Cancer in the Depot on Sunday at 12 noon. There will be tea, coffee and baked goodies for all, with a kiddies table to entertain the little ones. There is also a raffle with lots of prizes. So why not pop down for a cuppa and a chat in aid of this most worthy cause. See you there!

10 Years on the Road

Cinema North West are celebrating 10 years of Mobile Cinema with a packed programme of events, including the wonderful Adaptation Festival. This year's subject is the legendary John Huston. Don't miss it!

Supporting Young People Following Suicide

You are invited to an information session to help you in your work with young people who may be affected by suicide.  This information session will be given by Mike Rainsford, HSE Mental Health Promotion / Suicide Resource Officer.  It will help you to:

• support grieving
• reduce risk
• identify sources of support for young people who may be struggling with feelings of grief following a death of a friend by suicide.

 Details of the session are as follows:

Date: Wednesday, 10th October 2012

Time: 11.30am - 1pm

Venue:  NCYCS Youth Cafe, Hill Road, Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim

If you would like to attend this session, please reply by email to tsweetman@sligovec.ie so that numbers can be confirmed.

Town Trail: Stop No. 9

Villiers' Castle    (words courtesy of Mary Weir)

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

Villiers' Castle at the entrance to Dromahair village was to be the intended Irish home for George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Though only the son of a small Leicestershire landowner, George Villiers had a meteoric rise in society to become the first Duke in a hundred years who was not of royal lineage. His widowed but ambitious mother had sent her handsome son, aged sixteen, to France, where he learned all the skills of a courtier; music, dancing and fencing. When he was introduced at the Court of James I in 1614, he was an instant hit, quickly becoming the favourite of the King, who showered him with titles before finally creating him a Duke. He was a dashing figure and much later Alexander Dumas used him as a model for one of his Three Musketeers.

At Court, he was in a position of great power, and used his influence with the King to secure promotion for his relations. His nephew, George St. John, became commander of the fort at Carrick-on-Shannon, while another became Governor of Athlone. James wished to settle his favourite comfortably so when the Plantation of Leitrim got underway in the 1620s it was obvious that George Villiers would benefit. The rightful heir, Brian O'Rourke, was at the time incarcerated in prison in London. In spite of opposition from a jealous Court, George was granted 6,500 acres of good land and 1,500 acres of bog in "O'Rourke  country". One of the provisions stated that there was no obligation to reside on the estate as long as an agent stayed there as caretaker. There must also be two weekly markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the "Manor of Dromahere" as well as two fairs yearly on 20th July and October.

The future seemed rosy for George Villiers but grim fate  intervened. His high position with the King had created enemies. There was a wave of hostility against him which escalated into fierce antagonism, before finally culminating in his assassination by one John Fenton. Villiers had gone to Portsmouth to take command of the Fleet and Fenton was an unpaid sailor who stabbed him with a butcher's knife. Villiers shouted "Villain!" as he fell dead.

The estate at Dromahair passed to his half-brother William. The building of Villiers' Castle commenced. It was of an unusual design, based on a U-plan with stairs on the inside corners and with seven chimneys. It is believed to have been designed by John Johnson, who had been appointed at that time to the vicarage at Dromahair. He was both a cleric and an engineer and was involved in many architectural undertakings. He lived in a "Tymber house" in his parish of Killery. Built on the site of O'Rourke's castle, it is likely that the stones from this were used in the construction of Villiers' Castle.

A year after the assassination the most rapacious and notorious of the planters who received lands, Sir Frederick Hamilton, made an attempt to acquire the estate at Dromahair for 4,000 pounds. William Villiers initially agreed, but had second thoughts and offered 100 pounds to be released from the deal, which Sir Frederick rejected. He brought a lawsuit and hounded the now gravely ill Sir William, until the King intervened, much to Sir Frederick's disgust. Later he would cast his eye on the lands at Parke's Castle. William Villiers died just a year after his brother, and George's son, an infant also called George, inherited the castle and became the 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

During the 1641 rebellions Sir Charles Coote used Villiers' Castle to quarter his troops. In April 1646 a worried George Villiers wrote to the King about his "valuable and strong house in Leitrim at Dromahair". Sir Charles had withdrawn his garrison and he feared "that the rebels may occupy it.....he prays that Philip Taylor may be commissioned to raise a company of dragoons or firelocks and that half of them may be ordered to remain at Dromahair where he will provide for them". During the period mid-1640s to mid-1650s, which saw the destruction of Manorhamilton Castle and the breaching of the walls at Jamestown, it is likely that Villiers' Castle was also under attack. The Villiers family remained absent and the edifice gradually fell into ruin. In 1710 the whole estate was sold by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham to George Lane, Viscount Lanesborough of Rathcline Castle, Tulsk, Co. Roscommon. Today Villiers' Castle remains an impressive ruin.

Leitrim Animal Welfare Table Quiz

The Blue Devon is hosting a Table Quiz on Friday next, 5th October at 8.30pm in aid of the Leitrim Animal Welfare Centre. Cost is €5 per head and there will be prizes and a raffle. 

Leitrim Animal Welfare is one of the largest rescue centres in Ireland, housing up to 100 dogs at any one time at their Drumkeerin base. The centre has a 95% success rate in re-homing dogs and operates a no-kill policy, meaning that healthy animals stay put until new homes are found for them. Cats, of course, are also cared for and re-homed where possible.

Please come along and support this fantastic work, and have some fun too!

Leitrim Business EXPO

Good Luck Lads!

Here's wishing the very best of luck to Gerry, James, Ronan and all the Dromahair Intermediate team taking on Gortletteragh this evening in the County Championship final in Ballinamore. Kick-off is at 5.30.

DDA Meeting & Community Notices

Dromahair Development Association are holding a public meeting on Tuesday night 2nd October at 8pm in the Depot to discuss the proposed footpath from the entrance of the OPW down to the Park. A feasibility study has been completed and the options available to us will be looked at on the night.


DROMAHAIR COMMUNITY NOTICES

Classes in The Depot

September has been a busy month for the Depot with the return of the classes for the new season. 

Karate classes are on Monday and Friday evenings under the instruction of Michael Sweeney. 

Aerobics Classes are back on Monday and Thursday evenings and Sue Mc Gowan gets everyone moving to the beat. Classes are suitable for all, regardless of fitn

ess levels so contact Sue for further details.

B- Sharp music classes are in the Depot on Tuesday evenings with John Farron giving instruction to beginners through improvers to the finished product.

Dromahair AED group held 3 meetings in September to refresh and organize training needs for the surrounding areas. Anyone wishing to become involved with the group should contact Ann Mc Williams or any member of the group. AED working to save lives in our community.

Dromahair Parent and Toddler group is back each Tuesday morning and Sandy Welsh is the contact for anyone wishing to attend or just come along on the day at 11.30am.

Dromahair Active Age group meet in the Depot each Wednesday morning from 10.30am and have numerous activities in place to entertain members so why not come along for the cuppa and a chat and enjoy the activities.

St. Joseph’s National School Killenummery

“It’s The Real Mc Coy”
Have you ever laughed for two hours? If you’d like to then come along and see…..

It’s The Real Mc Coy. A brand new 3- Act Irish comedy that will have you in stitches, written and directed by Tommy Marren (Midwest radio), the follow up to The Banshee of Crokey Hill. The play will be held in Killenummery Hall , Ballinagar on Friday 26th October and Saturday 27th October. Only a few weeks to go and tickets are selling fast. Tickets are available from The Blue Devon, The Club House and Mc Goldrick’s Londis priced at €15 each. Play starts at 8pm. All proceeds on the night to St. Joseph’s National School, Killenummery.

Ready Steady Cook

Ready Steady Cook in aid of “The Chapel of Ease”, Church of Ireland, Lurganboy

Will be held in Community Centre, Manorhamilton on Friday 26th October at 7.30pm. Celebrity chefs Joe Shannon(TV3) and Brian Mc Dermott(UTV) and local chefs Gabriel Mc Sharry and Sylvester Dolan(members of Panel of Chefs of Ireland are taking part and providing the entertainment on the night. With Wine and cheese tasting. Tickets €10 and are available from Jennifer 087- 7708689 Patricia 087- 6990874 or Lily 087- 7954186. 

Dromahair Development Blotto

The Blotto is back in action again for the new season and tickets are available in all local businesses. The Development Association need your support more than ever as they embark on the provision of new Footpath and Lighting down to the community Park. We have had a very busy year with a lot of work done, landscaping at new water treatment plant and at Drumlease corner with the re building of stone wall and putting in lawn. This has tidied up this approach to the village and we thank you for your kind comments, they are encouraging. We also had major clean ups in the village and gave facelift to some of our derelict buildings. We went up 8 points in the National Tidy Towns competition. However it’s not all about points, its about pride in where we live and making it look as good as we can for those of us living here all year round and for visitors. Dromahair Development thank you for your continued support.

S.T.O.P. Suicide - Help is always out there

STOP Suicide is a registered charity which was set up to assist and support individuals who feel suicidal or are in distress, and those bereaved by suicide.

STOP Suicide provides a free 10-week counselling service with fully qualified and Garda-vetted counsellors and psychotherapists. Counselling can take place at the offices of STOP, or at a place suitable convenient.

STOP Suicide also facilitates a bereavement support group on the first Thursday of each month at the Bee Park Resource Centre, Manorhamilton. This group brings people together to share their experiences and to receive help from those who share their pain. All who have been bereaved by suicide are welcome.

STOP Suicide also promotes positive mental health and related issues by visiting (upon request) schools, communities and organisations throughout the North West.

STOP Suicide's services are funded by those who have given their time to fundraise for the charity, which will be well known to residents of Dromahair as an organisation which was set up by local people in response to the loss of their own loved ones to suicide. 

Helping your child stay safe online

Following recent events, The Diary thought it might be useful to give parents some help and advice regarding internet safety for their children. The following guidelines and tips were prepared by Carolin Collins of In-Tandem Web Design. Many thanks Carolin.

Some Basic Guidelines

Become web-savvy yourself! You have to understand the social media environment yourself before you can successfully help to educate your child in Internet safety. In today’s world, you simply need to be a step ahead wherever possible.

Only allow your child access to a computer in a high traffic area in your house.

Know who your child is connecting with online. It’s a good idea to ask your child to go through their online contacts with you every few months. Ask them to explain exactly how they know every single person they are linked up with and ensure that they stick to the “one degree of separation” rule.

Educate your child about the importance of safe passwords, that they should not use the same password for all of their online activity and first and foremost should never share their password with anybody.

Continually dialogue with your child about online safety.

FACEBOOK

There are many positive sides to Facebook and if used properly and safely, it can be a fantastic resource for staying in touch with friends who live far away, being entertained, organising social events and doing educational and work-related research. However, the key here is “used properly and safely”.

Guidelines

If you don’t have your own Facebook account, open one. You don’t need to link up with lots of people or even put up any personal information yourself. But “friend” your child so that you can keep an eye on what is going on in their own account. Make this a condition of their continued use of Facebook (and if your child is of an age that they are asking to open an account soon, make this a condition before saying yes)! You can make a commitment that you will stay silent in the background and don’t embarrass your child by commenting or liking any of their comments.

To most teenagers, having large numbers of “friends” on Facebook makes them feel more popular and they can therefore be quite indiscriminate with who they “friend”. Sit down with your child and ask them to go through their list of Facebook “friends” one-by-one, explaining to you exactly how (or even just if) they know them personally. Ask them to remove any friends that they have never met face-to-face.

Go through your child’s Facebook Privacy Settings with them, taking care to look through every single option and judge what are the most appropriate settings. I would highly recommend that no setting should be set to anything higher than “Friends Only”. If your child has even “just” 200 friends, and each of these has the same, a status update or photo upload by your child could potentially be seen by 40,000+ people! So even though the term “Friends of Friends” might seem like a reasonable connection to allow, on Facebook this can quickly escalate to stellar numbers, especially in teenage circles.

Take a look with your child through the apps they have installed in their account. Assess which are actually still actively being used by the child and delete all others. For those that are still being used, check that any status updates can only be viewed by the account holder or friends at the most.

Get your child to enable the Tagging Approval setting. This can be found in Privacy Settings/Timeline & Tagging.

Also switch off tag suggestions, found at the same location.

In Privacy Settings/Apps, Games & Websites change settings to disallow the use of your child’s data by apps installed by their friends.

Through continuous dialogue, get your child to understand the implications of sharing personal information with the world. Teenagers today are growing up in a world of global sharing and collaboration. This is not a bad thing in itself, it is just a new way of thinking that many of us adults are simply not used to. Learn to separate the positive from the negative and help your child to recognise long-term implications of their online activities. Shutting their online life down is not the solution. Teaching them to operate within it in a responsible and alert manner is the only way forward.

Some Terminology
Facebook Profile v. Facebook Page: People set up Facebook ‘profiles’, businesses/bands/organisations/brands etc. set up Facebook ‘pages’. Both look quite similar except that linking up on an FB page is one-directional (a fan of a business can simply click on a “like” button to show support for that business and agree to receive status updates from them) whereas linking up on a Facebook profile requires agreement from both parties (one person sends a “friend” request to another, and the recipient has to accept it before the two are fully connected and will now begin to receive each other’s status updates).

Timeline: Your Timeline is your main content location. It contains all your stories, your photos and videos, a list of your friends, your favourite activities and interests, and what used to be called your “Wall”. This is where your friends can leave you messages, and you can update the world with anything you feel like sharing.

News Feed: The News Feed is a continuous stream of updates about your friends’ activities on and off Facebook. It appears on your Home page. In addition to updates from friends, it will also show updates from the FB Pages you “like” (eg. special offers or new product announcements from brands, announcements of new album releases from bands and in the case of teenagers quite often jokes, funny images etc. from FB pages that are set up solely for entertainment purposes and don’t represent any actually entities)

Tagging: Users can upload images to Facebook for the purpose of sharing them with their friends. After uploading an image, they can “tag” a friend in the image by clicking on the friend’s face in the photo and typing their name into a field. If that friend also has a FB account, it will now link this image to their account as well (although the friend does not have any editing power over the image) and will appear in their Timeline. Taking this one step further, the image will now also appear in the News Feed of this friend’s friends! UNLESS the person tagged manually removes their tag from the image or specific privacy settings are put in place that require an “approval” step in the first place before a tag can be published. More about that later.

Messaging: Users can send each other direct messages via Facebook. As an alternative to public messages on each other’s Timeline, they are able to hold private conversations whilst both are logged into Facebook. When the “chat” is completed and closed down, there used to be no further record of it. However, now these chats are saved into the Messages functionality

Apps: These are small add-ons that can be installed within Facebook and which give the user some added functionality. For teenagers, apps will probably be mostly in the form of games but can also be used for video chat and to connect their Facebook accounts with other websites and social media sites. Apps are generally not produced by Facebook itself but rather by third-party app developers. There is no vetting of app quality and most apps will request some sort of access to user’s personal details in order to be installed. It is imperative that children understand the implications of allowing apps access to their information without taking a closer look at what is being requested. Often, apps will not only access the user’s own details but also those of their friends as well! Furthermore, many apps require the user to give permission to the app to post status updates in their Timelines on their behalf. This could be required for innocent updates such as game scores but should not be simply accepted as a matter of course.

Fraping: Facebook-Raping … “I got fraped!” This is the term used when another person enters a status update on your child’s account after having gained access to it (probably because your child shared his/her password). Most teenagers find this very funny and fraped comments are often something like “Mary is the most beautiful girl in the world. I really admire her style, she is so intelligent and I simply wish I could be more like her!” Here, the post was probably entered by Mary on her friend’s Facebook account and is quite innocent. However, the potential for harm is obvious.

If you do not have a Facebook account yourself and don’t feel confident enough to set up your own account in order to explore its inner workings, please contact me at carolin@intandem.ie.

ASK.FM

This is a social networking site that has only become prominent in recent months. However, in this short time it has made a serious impact and large numbers of teenagers will have opened an account. “Find out what people want to know about you!“ is its tagline. It currently has around 16 million users worldwide with 20 million questions being asked each day.

Ask.fm is a site dedicated entirely to questions and answers. Users can ask a question or submit answers. The site also allows users to post anonymously or with their name attached to their contribution. The answers can be either in text or video format. Users can check out other user profiles, which include the user’s interests and an area to submit a question directly to the specific user. The user profile also lists the number of answers the user has provided and how many likes they received by the Ask.fm community. Ask.fm is available in numerous languages, including German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Norse, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and many more.

Ask.fm was founded in June of 2010. The application was intended to act as a conversational question and answer tool. Ask.fm would encourage users to interact and hold discussions to help find answers to the user’s questions. The company is based out of Riga, Latvia and currently consists of less than 10 individuals, including CEOs Ilja and Mark Terebin.

Unfortunately, whereas the original intention of the site might have been as an innocent conversational tool, in teenage circles it has quickly established itself as a forum for gossiping, sexual innuendo and in the most serious cases cyber-bullying.

Fortunately, most local teenagers seem to have deleted their ask.fm in light of recent tragic events as a mark of respect and in recognition of the pitfalls of such a site.

Recently, 12-year old Amy spoke with Francis Boylan on Ocean FM about ask.fm, discussing how it works and the dangers associated with the site. It is very worthwhile listening to the interview here: http://soundcloud.com/oceanfm/amy-who-spoke-to-francie

Guidelines

Simple: get your child to shut down their account if they have one.

If you decide to allow them to keep their account, make sure you take a look at their page regularly to see whether there are any posts of concern. However, remember that you will only see questions that have been answered! If your child receives inappropriate questions but does not answer them, they will not appear on the page and you will be none the wiser that there could be a problem.

OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA AND GUIDELINES

I have uploaded a PDF file containing a series of guidance sheets for teenagers and parents about all things online. These fact sheets originate from the website http://www.netsmartz.org/ and you can download the document here: http://www.carolincollins.com/info/Online-Tips.pdf

As always, your comments are welcome at dromahairydiary@gmail.com

DARC Meeting

The DARC Committee is holding a public meeting on Friday next 28th @ 9.15 pm in Blue Devon Function Room.  The main item on the Agenda is the transfer of The Park from The Park Trustees on behalf of Dept of Agriculture to DARC.  We encourage as many people as possible from Dromahair, Newtownmanor, Killargue, Killenummery, and Ardvarney to attend to show their support for this important community project.

DARC want to thank all the people of Dromahair, Killargue, Ardvarney, Killenummery and Newtownmanor for the welcome and encouragement they had for all the teams of DARC collectors. We wish to thank all those households that have given such support to this project to date. Representatives will be finalising collection in the areas over the next two weeks. For those people who were to drop envelopes into the Surgery, we ask if that can be done within the next week . Many Thanks once again.

Avril's Kilimanjaro Story

Recently Dromahair's Avril Banks climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of the charity, Aware, which aims to defeat depression, and in memory of her late uncle, Eugene Banks. Here, in her own words, Avril tells us how she did it............

 My Kilimanjaro Experience – “The Lemosho Route”

3^rd September 2012

Climbing Kilimanjaro was not a lifelong dream of mine. In fact, it took me all of one day to decide to do it. After seeing something online about it last February, I decided there and then it was time for me to set myself a challenge. A friend of mine put me in touch with Ian McKeever, who brings groups from Ireland to climb Kilimanjaro, and I asked him a few questions regarding the climb. Before I got off the phone with him I told him to put my name down for the September climb, I paid my deposit and I was ready to start training.

Between February and September I put in quite a bit of training to get me into shape by climbing as many of the local mountains as possible. The toughest being when I met Ian McKeever, and others training for Kilimanjaro, to climb Croagh Patrick on a very cold, wet March morning when we climbed it twice that morning. I put a lot of my fitness down to running with my local Athletic Clubs, North Leitrim AC and Sligo AC.

After a lot of training and fundraising, in aid of AWARE in memory of my late Uncle Eugene, departure date finally arrived. The actual climb itself wasn’t what worried me, it was going on a trip like this without knowing anyone. Arriving at Dublin Airport at 2:30am, on September 3^rd, I spotted a few people wearing hiking boots. Sure enough we were all in the one group.

KLM delivered us safely to Kilimanjaro Airport. After getting our luggage and VISAs sorted, we all met Ian McKeever in arrivals and proceeded to get the hour long bus journey to Arusha. We were staying at the Ilboru Safari Lodge. A very bumpy bus ride once we got off the main road. If you think we have potholes in Ireland, you’ve seen nothing. We just stayed one night there before our climb the next day. A nice comfortable hotel and the toilets were luxury compared to what we would enjoy on the mountain.

Day 1:

After a 2 hour long bumpy bus journey we arrived at Londorossi Gate to get registered for the climb. No turning back now! We had another 40 minute drive before we arrived at our starting point. We met all the porters, guides, medical team etc... We had our own personal porter who carried our main luggage for us. My porter was called Pasco, he had his work cut out for him! There must have been a crew of at least 40. Yes 40 people to look after 19 people. We were greeted with lunch and we met our chef, Tuesday (that was his name). What he can produce in a tent at over 3000m on a gas stove is unbelievable. We then started our climb. Probably one of my favourite days. It was a three hour trek through rain forest. We were on our way to the highest point of Africa, Uhuru Peak, 5895m. As we started to gain height, my legs loosened out and as I started to get to know our group a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Before we knew it, we could hear the sounds of Mti Mkubwa Camp pierce through the tranquillity of the rain forest. I got my first taste of camping Kili style. The porters had passed us out, carrying our main luggage along with other camping equipment. Pasco was waiting for me to arrive and he brought me to my tent which was all set up and he had all my gear in it already. My tent roomie for the climb was Sarah Doherty, a lovely girl from Donegal and working in Dublin. We became fantastic friends throughout the week and supported and encouraged each other.  At camp we got a basin of warm water to freshen up. We had popcorn and hot drinks waiting for us in the mess tent. This is also where dinner was served. The mess tent is a large tent that was fully kitted out with tables and chairs. Bed early with a hot water bottle and all!

Day 2:

My first night on a Kili Camp site was better than expected. We were awoken by a porter “good morning, how you sleep?” We then got a basin of warm water and a mug of tea. After getting freshened up and ready to go, we got our blood pressure, heart rate and O2 levels checked by Dr. Clemence, William and Ian, which was done every morning. Back to the mess tent for breakfast where we got porridge. It didn’t look very appetising but I ate as much as I could as I knew I’d need it to fuel me for the day and as a very picky eater I was afraid I mightn’t like lunch. I soon became known as Miss Porridge to the porters! As we got prepared for the day ahead, I heard the head porter, Baboon, shouting. He was calling the porters together and led them in song as they did every morning for the rest of the week. It was brilliant and really put us in a great mood for the day ahead.

I personally found Day 2 to be very tough. The trail immediately steepened and narrowed and we left the tranquillity of the rain forest, and onto Kili’s moorland. We stopped in a valley for lunch, rice and chicken, delish! We refilled our platypus and bottles. After lunch we climbed the Shira Plateau. We eventually saw our first sighting of Kibo (Kili’s Peak). I couldn’t stop looking at the sunset on the glorious mountain. It was breathtaking. We arrived at Shira 1 Camp for the night. At this stage we were at 3600m.

Day 3:

Got our usual wake up call, medical check-up, breakfast, song/dance etc.. At this stage I was feeling fine. No altitude problems so far for me, although I heard some of the group were suffering from headaches.  I found day 3 to be one of the easier days. I noticed how slow we were walking. It was frustrating, as you want to walk faster, but the guides know what they are doing. The slower you go the more likely you will have success. The only thing that slowed us down was all the pee breaks.  I was going through 5/6 litres of water a day. We arrived at Shira 2 Camp early that evening so it was nice not to have to sort ourselves out in darkness in a small tent with a head lamp. We got to know some of the porters a bit better as we passed the evening in the mess tent playing cards. We went to bed knowing we had a tough day ahead of us as it is the most important day for acclimatisation.

Day 4:

I woke up feeling like I had a hangover. When getting my blood pressure checked with Dr. Clemy it turned out to be quite high so he gave me a tablet for it. Today we reached a height of 4530m where we stopped for lunch at Lava Tower. At this stage we were having lunch at a height higher than Mt Blanc. We were given the choice to climb Lava Tower or continue to camp. I decided to climb Lava Tower as I felt it would be good for acclimatisation. We made our way back down to our next campsite, Barranco Camp at 3950m. Barranco Camp was the most scenic campsite and my favourite of the camps. Set in a valley among forests of Senecio Kilimanjaro. Looking at the stars every night took my breath away. So clear and they felt so close. I could easily make out the Milky Way.

Day 5:

Barranco Wall towers above Barranco Camp. Technically it was the most difficult part of the climb. It was quite intimidating as I could see other groups gone ahead of us scrambling up. I actually enjoyed it as it was a change from the monotonous walking. It is a near vertical path where in places you have to haul yourself up. Everyone was in great form and very encouraging. It was a great relief to reach the top. From the top of the Barranco Wall we then went down to the Karanga Valley and upwards to Karanga Camp at 4100m, our base for the night. It really is difficult to describe the views. We are high above the clouds and you almost feel as though you could jump and spring across the thick fluffy clouds. A few of us had a late night playing cards, especially when Conor produced a little bottle of whiskey. A great night of laughter with the porters.

Day 6:

Most definitely the most difficult as two days become one. Today we made our way to Barafu Camp from where we would make our summit ascent. I knew the next two days would be the toughest of my life so I had to get in the right frame of mind and remember why I was here! I hadn’t eaten much for the last two days but I really forced myself to eat plenty of porridge as I knew I needed it for fuel and energy. It was the shortest hike of the week. When we arrived at Barafu Camp I really felt the cold. This camp is pretty wild, perched on a high ridge it is an overcrowded jumble of rocks dotted with hundreds of tents. I don’t know how but they slotted my tent in a lovely flat spot surrounded by the rocky landscape. Got a lovely dinner as usual. The plan was to get all our summit gear ready and sleep in most of what we were going to be wearing for the summit. We retired to our tents at about half 5 to get some sleep.

Day 7:

Wakey wakey!! 12:30am we were woken up for breakfast. It was so difficult to drag myself from my cosy sleeping blanket and get up in the middle of the night in freezing temperatures. Our porters really showed their kindness here. My guy made sure I was well wrapped up, tied my boot laces and checked my backpack.  A few bowls of porridge, my pockets full of jellybabies, headtorch, spare batteries, about 7 layers of clothes and I was good to go! By 1:30am we were on the long, cold relentless trek to 5895m. Pole Pole (slowly slowly), one foot in front of the other. The first three hours were so tough and I had my first wave of nausea. It just came out of nowhere. Our guide, Sam, gave me a tablet and I was better within 10 minutes. I was so well wrapped that I hadn’t noticed how cold it was. When I went to take a sip of water my platypus had frozen. Luckily I was prepared with a bottle of water in my bag wrapped in a sock. I could see Stella Point for hours, it looked so close yet we were going so slowly and zig-zagging the whole way up that it felt like we’d never get there. We had a break and watched the sun rise before finally arriving at Stella Point where we were greeted by some porters with a mug of tea. Stella Point is often a place where people are so exhausted that they cannot continue the 45 minutes to the summit. I could see the summit in the distance, there was no way I was stopping now. I was feeling tired but seeing the summit and seeing people coming back down looking so happy and proud of themselves gave me a newfound spring in my step and I was ready to see the challenge through. It was here I thought of the advice one of my heroes, Gerry Duffy (professional speaker, entrepreneur, author, coach, athlete), gave me back in April: “Believe you can and you’re half way there”.

At sea level this walk would have taken 15mins; it took us 45-60mins. I could see the amazing glaciers all around. I really enjoyed this last part as I knew the end was near and I was going to complete the challenge. Finally, we reached Uhuru Peak which means freedom.

The highest point in Africa, the highest free standing mountain in the world at 5895m and I was there!!!

It is almost impossible to describe the feeling reaching the top. I wish it could be bottled. I’ll never forget the feeling of joy, accomplishment and pride. I was there in memory of my uncle Eugene so there were tears, but joyful tears as I know he was there with me.

Making our way back down in a day and a half was very severe. It was relentless and very slippy through the rainforest. I just wanted to get back to the hotel and have a shower and a nap and go for a few drinks with our porters. I left a lot of gear to Pasco and a tip. He was so so grateful.

What I learned from this trip:

·         My personal, mental and physical strength and determination to climb for 8 days and reach the summit;

·         I can say with pride that I have climbed one of the seven summits;

·         The time to reflect on where I am in my life and where I want to be. Believing that anything is possible with a “can do” attitude;

·         How beautiful Kilimanjaro is, as it rises through rain forest to desert and onto glaciers;

·         Pride in raising nearly €6000 for AWARE- helping to defeat depression. Thank you for donating;

·         I made the most wonderful friends on Kilimanjaro and it has given me huge self-confidence that I can go anywhere and do anything I want.

Dedicated to my dear Uncle, Eugene Banks RIP.   I hope you saw me near the sky. xx

Last of the Bird's Eye Views

Here are the last few aerial shots of Dromahair. Thanks again to Trevor McDaid.