‘Ciarán was our team leader... very much guiding us’
Wife of tragic R116 helicopter airman prepares for 325km charity cycle
THEY made their way down the church aisle for the first time as Mr and Mrs, grinning from ear to ear.
And now as she prepares to do a solo 325km charity cycle on what would have been their 18th wedding anniversary, Martina Smith is convinced her husband Ciarán will still be by her side as she pedals from their home in Oldtown, Co. Dublin, to the outer reaches of north Mayo where the airman disappeared while returning from a rescue mission aboard the ill-fated R116 helicopter.
The 38-year-old father of three was one of four crew on board the Sikorsky S92 when it crashed close to Blackrock Island in the early hours of March 14, 2017. And although the bodies of pilot Captain Dara Fitzpatrick and Captain Mark Duffy were later recovered, Ciarán and his winch operator colleague Paul Ormsby are still missing despite extensive searches.
Martina told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We got married on the 18th of July in 2003 and when the crash happened in 2017 we were together 20 years. ‘I’ll be doing the cycle on the weekend of our 18th wedding anniversary. This is going
‘He still inspires us as a group and a family’
to be a real spiritual journey for me going down there. I have mixed emotions…. this is a milestone and there is the fear about when this is over. But I just feel a connection with Ciarán when we’re up at Blacksod.
‘Ciarán will be 100% with me. The whole thing with Ciarán was he was our team leader. He would make you push yourself to your limits and he believed that there was always something more to strive for and that’s what kept us together as a family. He was behind us and he was very much guiding us.
‘I want to do this because I want Ciarán to be remembered. What keeps us going is that he still inspires us as a group and a family.’
Ciarán was an experienced airman having worked with both the Aer Corps and with Dublin-based helicopter firm CHC for several years.
And in the lead-up to the ill-fated rescue mission he had been training for a charity cycle.
Poignantly, the winch man also discovered by chance a poem written by a Native American tribal chief about death, which not alone intrigued him, but given the subsequent tragic turn of events, also proved to be prophetic.
Called A Poem by Tecumseh, the closing line reads ‘Sing your death song and die like a hero going home’.
Martina recalls: ‘About two weeks before the crash Ciarán kept reading the Chief Tecumseh poem out loud because he was so taken by it. He kept saying it to me in the kitchen.
‘It’s a beautiful poem and it encapsulates everything about Ciarán. I’ll be wearing a top that will have “Sing your death song and die like a hero going home” written on the back.
‘Ciarán was brilliant at doing ultra-cycling and I would have crewed for him. Our three girls Caitlin, Shannon and Finlay will be coming on the trip because I wanted them to have the experience of crewing that I would have had with Ciarán.
‘My three brothers Kevin, Gary and Pádraig will be travelling down and so will my parents Aidan and Bridie.
‘I’m hoping to raise €16,000 for the LauraLynn charity… it was a charity very close to Ciarán’s heart. He was very taken with LauraLynn because its motto is ‘making the most of short and precious lives’.
Martina will set out on the Ciarán Smith East to West charity cycle next Friday night (July 16) and hopes to arrive at Blacksod Lighthouse 16 hours later on Saturday afternoon.
Anyone wishing to donate can do so by visiting www.idonate.ie/CiaranSmithEasttoWest.