A MOTHER of three grown-up children from Dublin has died from her injuries after plunging into a gully when she slipped in foggy weather on Mweelrea Mountain in southwest Mayo.
The woman was named locally as Margaret Sweeney (50), from Annaville Park, Dundrum. She worked for City of Dublin VEC.
On Tuesday, Ms Sweeney was climbing Mweelrea, which is the highest mountain in Connacht (2,442ft), with her husband, Colm Magee, a producer with the RTÉ sports department, when she slipped and fell about 60ft into a ravine.
Her shocked husband used his mobile phone to raise the alarm just before 6pm. It was difficult to make a connection because of the terrain.
About 9:30pm a first response unit from Mayo Mountain Rescue, which had started out from Doolough, reached the spot on the mountain where Mr Magee was located. In his effort to secure a continuous phone signal, he had moved from the spot where the fall had taken place.
Although shocked, he was able to give rescuers a description of the area where the fall had occurred.
After Mr Magee had been taken to safety, rescuers began the task of trying to find his wife. About 10pm, according to rescuers, the fog gave way to clearer conditions with a starlit sky.
Efforts throughout the night to find Ms Sweeney proved unsuccessful. Her body was spotted in the lee of the mountain about 5.30am yesterday and was later airlifted to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.
Members of Mayo Mountain Rescue spent up to 18 hours on the search operation. They were joined shortly after dawn yesterday by volunteers from Galway Mountain Rescue.
Dick Harnedy, of Mayo Mountain Rescue, said team members had roped themselves down a number of cliffs during the operation to find the missing woman.
Mr Harnedy said Mweelrea was a very difficult mountain to climb, especially in poor weather conditions. “It is a very easy place to make a mistake, especially in foggy weather,” he added.
Yesterday afternoon, Mr Magee was brought to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar, where he identified his wife’s remains. A postmortem was carried out in the afternoon.
Rescuers were served cups of tea and sandwiches throughout the night at the Delphi Mountain Resort centre. Rory Concannon, manager of the centre, said a lot of people climb the mountain, especially in summertime.
“It is a very tough climb,” he explained, “one of the toughest in Ireland, if not Europe. It certainly is not a mountain to be climbed in poor visibility as there are lots of cliffs and corries.”