Mayo councillor is all set for Good Friday backwards climb of the Reek

THE fallout from Mayo's defeat to Dublin in the All-Ireland final last year has had a serious knock-on effect for local county councillor, Brendan Mulroy, reports PADRAIG BURNS. 

Ahead of that game the Horkan's Hill native promised to walk up the Reek backwards if Mayo beat Dublin in the final.

Like so much nowadays, it was all a product of banter on social media and it's ended up with Brendan readying himself for the past few months for what on the face of it looks like a mad thing to do.

"That Mayo team has a lot to answer for. If they won I wouldn't be doing this but I'm stuck with it now," he said jokingly last week as he completed his preparations for his eight-hour backwards trek.

"It came from the banter on the Hill 16 site and Joe.ie and it got to the stage where I just said if we win I'll celebrate by going up backwards. Obviously, we didn't but a few people mentioned it to me that I should do it anyway for a local charity and there's no better charity to do a Reek climb for than the Mayo Mountain Rescue," he said.

Not everyone has been completely positive about the venture tomorrow (starting at 7a.m.)  and a small number of people have remarked that it's not a safe thing to do and asked him to think again about it.

"I appreciate their concern but the reality is that I will be moving at such a slow pace going backwards up the mountain that it will be almost impossible for me to get injured. Put it like this, the chances of getting injured running down the Reek at pace is far greater than me going up it at snail’s pace. That's the reality of what I'll be doing," he said.

Brendan realises he faces an enormous task and he's not taking anything for granted. "I've prepared as best as I could possibly prepare and I'm looking forward to it but I'm looking at an eight-hour climb backwards. I've practiced up there and there's no getting away from the fact that it's a real challenge and a very hard thing to do. Just think of the last section of the climb alone and you realise how hard it is."

He has trained hard for it, with much of the physical conditioning taking place with local personal trainer George Forde.

"The first thing I had to do was to get myself into shape and go from there. So that's what I've been at for the past few months," he said.

He's delighted to be in a position to help the Mayo Mountain Rescue organisation though he's at pains to point out that they will not be accompanying him on the day of the challenge.

"They won't be with me as their members can only respond to call-outs for their service and I'm hoping that there will be no need to call them out for me. I've decided to restrict the numbers accompanying me on the climb to a handful of people because I don't want a circus around it and increase the possibility of an accident.

"I suppose I could easily encourage a couple of hundred people to do the climb with me but that would be harder to manage so we're going to have a very small number of people helping out," he said.

He doesn't know of anyone that has climbed it backwards before. "There was probably no one daft enough to. I'm looking forward to it and it being over but it's been great fun getting ready for it."

Which leaves this reporter wondering what he has in mind for next September if Mayo manage to win the All-Ireland eventually.

"It's a secret." That's all I could get out of him. Bet the boys on Hill 16 can't wait to find out.