More than 800 participants walk from Darkness Into Light
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Darkness Into Light walkers approaching the roundabout at the hospital, the turnaround point on the 5k walk, which started and finished at Mullingar Rugby Club.Image 2 of 5
Ravi Mehta, Loren Crowley, Glenda Dunne, Michelle Maher and Declan Connolly on volunteer duty at the rugby club on Saturday morning.Image 3 of 5
Serving tea and coffee to the DIL participants were Phyllis O’Malley, Aoife Murphy, Olivia Bardon and Sarah Henaghan.Image 4 of 5
On car park duty for the Mullingar DIL, David O’Donnell, Jamie Taaffe and Patrick Cooney.Image 5 of 5
Local Comhaltas musicians playing at the rugby club for the DIL event, Joe Connaire, Anna and Aoife Dunleavy and Daragh McCabe.An estimated 800-plus people set off from the hospitable surroundings of the clubhouse at Mullingar Rugby Club to walk from Darkness Into Light on Saturday morning. Their hour-long journey took them as far as the hospital, passing roundabouts decorated by local students and back to the rugby club, where tea, coffee, fruit, snacks, and the aroma of cooking hotdogs awaited them, as tunes by local Comhaltas musicians filled the air.
The event was the main and largest Darkness Into Light fundraiser for Pieta House in the north Westmeath area (there were others including in Castlepollard, Killucan and Streete), and it was organised to the highest standard in just seven weeks.
In March, the committee who had organised the previous events stood down, and posted on the DIL Mullingar Facebook page that it was open to a new team to take over. That happened quickly and those who stepped up as members of the new committee were: Donal Coade, Declan Connolly, Audrey Moughty, Jason Monaghan, Mickey Wallace, Loren Crowley, Vinny Dunne, Dr Ravindra Mehta, Michelle Maher, Anne Dunne, Olivia Bardon, Laura O’Donnell and Phyllis Hayes.
They did a fine job of putting it all together in the limited time, and as Donal (chairperson) told the Westmeath Examiner on Sunday after he’d had time to rest: “We were blown away by the generosity. Every single place we looked for help, we got it. There were no refusals whatsoever.
“We can’t impress enough how important that is – we only had seven weeks until we got this going, and to get the support we got was incredible. That – and a huge amount of work from the committee – and we managed to pull it over the line.”
The DIL committee members have expressed their gratitude to the following: Mullingar Rugby Club, O’Brien’s Centra, Ruck and Roast by the Spiced Bean, Brader Holdings Ltd, Clarke’s Bar, Lidl, Patrick Street, Sleator Motors, Fresh Today, Avonmore, Signs Express, IP Centre, Columb Barracks, Smyths Hardware, Wallace Waste, DC Maintenance, BWG Foods, Barry Martin Motors, Esquires Coffee, Annebrook House Hotel, Key Guard Security Ltd, Harbour Place Shopping Centre, Mullingar Community College, Coláiste Mhuire, An Garda Síochána, Westmeath County Council, Mullingar Community First Responders, Farrelly’s Coaches, John Rogan, Stonehouse, the Comhaltas musicians, the Song Club led by Aisling Gaudet, Ruth Illingworth who read a poem before the start, and the many volunteers.
The Darkness Into Light events are poignant for the many participants who remember lost loved ones, as well as those who do it to show solidarity and for its own sake, as there is something special about being up and doing something as natural to human beings as walking when the sun rises.
It is a beautiful event, and the new committee are aiming to run it again next year.