Shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, we walked into the light

LAST weekend was a very busy one for me. After work on Friday evening I drove to Wexford to partake in an early-morning walk for a charity that’s very close to my heart.

Darkness Into Light is Pieta House’s flagship annual fundraiser and awareness event, and darling Derry is one of the many ambassadors for this wonderful charity. In fact, he has been the one to welcome the wonderful people that support the event in Courtown these past few years.

The morning started at 3.30am at Flanagan’s Wharf with music from South East Radio. Then it was Derry’s turn to welcome everyone with the same special message of support and compassion that resounds across the world.

This year, there were over one million kilometres walked around the globe to help raise awareness for suicide prevention, self harm and the stigma that goes with any mental health issue.

In Ireland, over 200,000 people left the comfort of their beds to take part in various locations from 4.15am. There were so many people trying to get to Courtown Harbour that there was actually a traffic jam at that hour!

The Tara Vie Hotel had its windows lit up with night lights befitting the occasion, and all houses on the route had their outside lights on to help light the way for the walkers.

Those who walked the route did so hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to support Pieta House. The sea of yellow t-shirts was quite something to see in this seaside village at sunrise.

I felt privileged to be asked to make the welcome speech. Derry read the powerful manifesto poem, which goes like this: ‘We wake up in the darkness, in our thousands around the world. We rise, to challenge stigma, to banish self harm and to fight suicide.

‘We keep in our hearts, those feeling trapped in the darkness of night, those haunted by sadness, those with an empty chair.

‘We are armed with courage, to listen, to talk, to care. We walk shoulder to shoulder, until we drive out guilt and shame, until we stop the breaking of human spirit and start connecting in conversation.

‘We walk together to meet the silence with our voices, towards the promise of every new dawn, embracing a world of light. We walk on with unshaken purpose, with undivided strength fuelled by compassion.

‘With every step we commit to acceptance, we commit to hope, we commit to life.

‘Together we will stamp out selfharm, we will stamp out suicide and stigma and we will win.’

When you think how much this has grown, that when this all started in 2009, there were only 400 participants in the Phoenix Park —it will give some indication of the enormity and importance of the work Pieta House do to help those who are suicidal and those families that have been affected by suicide.

Thanks to everyone’s support, and Electric Ireland for their sponsorship, this annual event has grown to provide Pieta House with over €4 million in funding.

An event like this means that Pieta House were able to support over 7,000 people with face-toface therapy and respond to 16,500 calls on their national helpline last year. Because of events like Darkness Into Light, all these services are free of charge.

Since the first centre 12 years ago, those at Pieta House have heard the painful truths of over 36,000 people. I hope this vital service — which is available at centres all over the country — continues to get all our support and raise awareness to help prevent suicide in our society.

Well done to volunteers Joy and Enda Mulhall, the committee, the Coastguard, South East Security, Gorey Red Cross, as well as Tom Flanagan, local businesses and all involved in making the Courtown event such a great success. I can’t forget The Dinky take-away who very kindly cooked for all the walkers on their return to the harbour. Roll on next year.