Mayo walkers in step with International Marching League

DELEGATES from the Castlebar International Four Day Walking Festival, representing Ireland, attended the annual general conference of the International Marching League (IML) in Brno in the Czech Republic, where 23 of the 29 countries in the league were represented.

Rowena Gillespie (director) and Oisin Herraghty of the Castlebar Walks travelled to the Czech Republic for the six-day event.

Universal walking medals were presented to delegates who had completed the walks on all the continents, including a number of foreign participants who competed in Castlebar.

And delegates also heard proposals to establish a new international walk in Canada, while they also voted in new constitution rules and bye-laws.

Rowena said: “The general meeting coincided with the Brno Walking Festival and one of the novel events for delegates was a 12k ‘lubricating wheel march’.

“IML have 27 walks in 30 different countries around the world and Castlebar was one of the founding members.

“The genesis of non-competitive walking events is the Nijmegen Vierdaagse festival in the Netherlands, which dates back to 1909.

“Due to the success of that event and because more and more foreign walkers were participating in Nijmegen, the Dutch organisation KNBLO helped to get similar events established in other European countries, starting at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the '70s.

“In that period the International Two Day Marches of Flangers in Belgium started, the Haervesjmachen in Denmark, La Marche de L’Armee in Luxembourg and the Castlebar International Four Day Walks and Two Day Marches in Bern, Switzerland, were established.

“In 1977, the Japan Walking Association established the Japan Three Day March. This was the first multi-day walking event to be held in Japan.

“This also represented a major breakthrough as it meant that organised non-competitive walking events were no longer exclusive to Europe.”

The late Mr. Tommy Robinson, representing Castlebar, attended the first IML meeting.

Rowena continued: “Being part of the IML is phenomenal for Castlebar and Mayo. The IML have a passport which can be stamped when the walker goes to different countries and to get the European Walker stamp walkers must come to Castlebar, something the walkers cherish.

“And so Castlebar attracts the international walker because of the IML accreditation. Those walkers who want their stamps travel to the various countries and they base their holidays and book their flights a year in advance based in the IML calendar.”

Rowena and Oisin met with the president of the IML, Stefan Aroneg, from Sweden, who took part in the 2023 Castlebar walks.

Rowena added: “He entirely enjoyed the Castlebar walks and he had with him IML representatives from Isreal, Sweden and Australia.

“While in Brno we met two military couples, one Swedish and one Danish, who enquired if we knew anything about the Castlebar walks as they were coming next year. We also met a German military group who come regularly to Castlebar especially for the cross-country ramble which is unique to Castlebar.”

While in the Czech Republic, Rowena and Oisin distributed Mayo literature and souvenirs to fellow delegates, compliments of Mayo County Council’s Mayo.ie.

The Castlebar International Four Day Walks will take place next year from July 3 to 6.

Next year’s IML annual meeting will be held in Indonesia.