Rescue services Mission On a

Joe Kelleher

Now is the time to start rotation planning P11

HIS sheep farm in Glenmalure, Co Wicklow has been in the family for generations but Jim Nolan’s knowledge of the mountains has also been inherited.

Jim’s father, Jim Nolan Snr (91), attended the scene of a few plane crashes on the mountains in his time, using his local knowledge to help out in search and recovery missions.

Jim has around 300 ewes and also keeps 39 suckler cows on rented land. He first got involved in mountain rescue from meeting the team out on training exercises.

“I began to get involved in 1989 just by meeting a couple of them out training. It went from that to another friend of mine, Robert Power, who was in it more or less from the beginning in 1983,” he said.

Though his father was never a member of the mountain rescue, he often helped out in search and rescue operations because of his local knowledge, and this also influenced his decision to join.

“Maybe it’s in the blood, but when I was approached by Bill Byrne from Dunlavin, who was the team leader at the time, I said maybe I would,” he recalled.

“That was some time ago, in 1991, and I suppose I’ve been involved ever since.”

The Glen of Imaal and Dublin Mountain Rescue Teams are amongst the busiest in the country and dealt with over 107 calls on their busiest year but usually deal with about 60 per year.

The 40 members also attend three training sessions and one meeting per month.

“We get a mixture of everything. A lot of lower leg injuries, cardiac arrests and we also get searches sometimes for despondents, people who have decided to end their lives,” he said.

“That seems to be getting a little bit more frequent but our team is pretty good at search management so we’re called on to do searches.

“It can be very difficult to deal with and you have to be very careful and mind yourself.

“We have a ‘buddy system’ and if you find something you think you’re not able to handle, you can step back.

“We try to limit the number of people who will go into an incident like that and we have access to counsellors and we also have a debriefing after all incidents,” he says.

Luckily, not all incidents are tragic and it’s the rescue operations that give the most satisfaction and the relief of a casualty in being found.

“This could just be someone who got lost in the fog or got hurt and what we want to do is get them back to their families and friends. If it is a fatality, then it’s closure.

“Sometimes you get a bit of a downer if things don’t go right and you wish you could have done more, but 99pc of the time you feel good about what you do,” he added.

At home with dad Jim Snr