Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:Macdara Ó Graham, a 23-year-old Armagh climber, has recovered after breaking his back in a fall. He spoke to LORNA SIGGINS

I STARTED climbing when I was about 16 or 17 years old. I’d been watching mountaineer and writer Dermot Somers on TG4 and he was up in the hills somewhere. I told my mother – singer Padraigín Ní Úallacháin – that he looked like a very interesting character, and she mentioned that she knew him through music, and would contact him to see if I he could introduce me to climbing.