Mweelrea Rescue

mweelrea mountain

The north face of Mweelrea mountain.

I live beside the University Hospital in Galway and the helicopter pad is only a couple of hundred yards from our back garden. This morning, the coastguard helicopter swooped low over our house and landed – another delivery to the Accident & Emergency ward. Only later did it emerge that the helicopter was delivering a hiker who had been injured on Mweelrea mountain. He sustained his injuries yesterday, but the weather meant that he could not be airlifted to hospital until this morning. Luckily, a team of volunteer rescuers from Mayo Mountain Rescue found him, camped with him overnight and assisted in the airlift this morning – the Irish Times reports that the team spent twenty hours on Connacht’s highest – and least forgiving – mountain.