Conditions were excellent for the annual Croagh Patrick pilgrimage, but only if you were a repentant sinner with a lifetime of badness to atone for. Frank McNally reports.
Opportunities for penance began as soon as you left the car-park at Murrisk, and increased with each of the 2,500 feet to the wind-blasted, rain-drenched summit. If you saw the light anywhere along the route, it must have been spiritual, because physical visibility was minimal.
The atrocious weather didn't stop an estimated 30,000 making the climb, only a little below average for Reek Sunday. Some 30 people took the easy way down, by stretcher. A further 120 were treated for injuries and hypothermia on site, according to the Mayo Mountain Rescue Team.
The first climbers arrived at 4 a.m. and the first rescue was two hours later when a four-year-old boy was treated. Later in the day, an 86-year-old French woman had to be assisted, according to Shane McGuire, press officer for the Mayo team.
"Most of the falls were weather-related injuries due to bad footwear. Then many suffered hypothermia while waiting to be treated," he said.
There was no shortage of advice at the foot of the mountain. This ranged from car-park attendants cautioning about the need for warm clothes at the summit, to the now-traditional Northern evangelists warning pilgrims that they wouldn't find God up there however well dressed they were. Returning climbers were nevertheless greeted by friendly Orangemen and women, and although the orange - available in paper cups - was obviously diluted from concentrate, the accompanying Bible tracts were the real thing.
Competition for souls (the evangelists included at least one Catholic group) has become a striking feature of the pilgrimage. A DUP supporter and spokesman for an organisation called Reformation Ireland confirmed that Croagh Patrick was a favourite target ("there's also Lough Derg, but it's more difficult to reach people there"), partly because of its location. Dublin was a lost cause, he implied, "but the west of Ireland is more traditional and not so materialistic". Even so, the group had a lively exchange of views with a stall-holder, who was using a plastic skeleton to advertise his wears, including the "I climbed Croagh Patrick" certificate, retailing at a fiver.
Despite the conditions, a few pilgrims persisted in climbing barefoot, including Sebastian Farrell from Warrington, England, who only heard of the pilgrimage while on holiday. "My father told me about it, and I thought I'd try it. But then he told me that the really traditional way to do it was like this."
And as the day wore on, gardaí were discouraging climbers who hadn't already started on the trek. But to the despair of the evangelists, a steady stream of pilgrims continued up and down the slippery slope, where there was weeping and squelching of feet.