River deep mountain high

I understand you are a member of the Mountain Rescue, aren't you? When was it set up?

1980 was the start of the Mountain Rescue Team.

What precipitated the setting up of the team, was there a big incident or something like that?

A report was done on mountain rescue in Northern Ireland and they said some form of 'rescue' because there was no rescue at all...

Right.

...and rescue stations were put in different places and they had asked a member of staff from the Western Education and Library Board, Joe Rotherham, to start up the North West Mountain Rescue Team.

Why did you put your hand in the air so to speak, what prompted you to join?

I was...it all started from the Scout Association. I was a member of the Scouts - Strand Scouts. In 1959 I joined the Strand Scouts and they taught me everything on survival, hiking and camping and all of this, and then I went to become a senior Scout and I was the leader of the Strand Mountaineering Service Team and we did rock climbing, and we went round to different groups and took them rock climbing.

Well, presumably you did this as part of your badge work and everything for the Scouts, was that it?

Yeah, oh yeah. Then I progressed on to become Scout Leader. I was Scout Leader for three years in the Strand troupe and then onto a Group Scout Leader. Now I hold the title of County Advisor for Mountain Activities.

For the Scouts?

Uh-huh!

In addition to your work for the Mountain Rescue Team?

Yes. In addition to that.

Right...

So that's how I got involved in all of that.

So, you are actually involved in youth work with your 'real' job - if you want to call it that.

Uh-huh.

What's that, what do you do?

(Laughs) My job is as a climbing instructor with Derry City Council and St Columb's Park. They have a climbing wall and I am a climbing instructor.

Let me get this straight - you get people to climb the wall all day?

Yes! We climb walls all day! (Laughs)

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that!

(Laughs) That's how they came to ask me. Joe Rotherham came to me and asked me to be a member...no he asked me, actually, to sit on the committee of the North West Mountain Rescue Team, and that's how they started in 1980.

Right...well did you actually do training with the first groups that came in, and things like that? Was that part of your work?

Well Joe was the main person because he was employed by the Western Education and Library Board for outdoor pursuits and he was qualified. I did a lot of training with him and that's how the team got started, from that. The team was based here.

In the City?

In the City, and it covered the Sperrins.

Right, so what terrain do you actually cover?

Now?

Um-hum...

Oh we cover the whole of the north now except for the Mournes.

Is there a specialist team for the Mournes?

There is a team for the Mournes. In those days there was the Mourne Team, there was one in Ballycastle and there was one here and Ballycastle, they went on to join the Coastguard and there was no team there, so it ended up that we were covering the whole north except the Mournes.

Is there much training that goes on? Obviously as the years have gone on and on the training must have got more and more intensive...more rules and regulations and things like that. I'm interested to know what you started out with in your kit bag.

Everybody was trained in First Aid - that's the most important thing - First Aid and how to handle a casualty and transport them to an ambulance and that's the first and most important thing; cliff work and safety procedures as well. Now it is ongoing training. We are training every fortnight now and then we have a major training exercise at the end of every month, with all three sections coming together.

When you say 'section' what do you mean?

We have sections in Fermanagh, the North Antrim area and we have a section here.

Oh right...

So each section has a programme that is the exact same and training goes on in each section and after that we come together once a month and train.

Do you go out to specific localities and do specific types of training?

I'm mostly training them in rope work and cliff because of my instructor status, so they always ask me to do their training for rope work.

So you do a lot of time hanging around too, do you?

(Laughs) I do...

Have you any funny stories about people suspended half way down a rope or tied in knots and needing rescued themselves?

(Thinks)...there is. I take people on abseiling exercises and we had one guy there now, not that long ago.

No names!

No name, no! And when he was going down...he was shown how it was done. I told him to lean well back and the next thing he turned upside down. All we seen was his feet and he was hanging upside down.

No...oh no! What happened did he come out of one of the grips or something?

No no he just went back too far and turned upside down. There was a safety rope and all that, so he was safe.

Did you have to pull him up again?

No he just had to straighten his legs out and he was grand.

Have you ever had a situation to which you were called where someone has done something incredibly stupid? What gets you annoyed when you have a call-out, what gets you angry?

People who are not properly equipped with footwear and decide to take a day up in the hills sometimes with just a pair of shorts and a top on them, and footwear that is very poor. Those are the people who get into trouble. We go down there every year to Croagh Patrick where there is a pilgrimage every year.

I suppose you get people trying to climb up in sandals?

You wouldn't believe what people go up wearing - high heeled shoes. Bare feet is preferable, at least nothing can really happen, but there are people who go up wearing very poor shoes and very little clothing. It could be a wet and very cold day.

Or the sun could be splitting the stones and they have sunburn and heat stroke and all sorts of other things going on.

Yes, and that's why accident and incidents happen. The team was down this year and had about three major incidents and had to carry them off the mountain.