By Thomas Breathnach

July 25, 2010

Forty people were injured, two of them seriously, during today’s annual pilgrimage up Croagh Patrick – Saint Patrick’s sacred mountain in County Mayo, Ireland.

Up to 20,000 thousand pilgrims continued the 1,500 year old tradition by climbing the 2533ft (772m) mountain in misty and foggy conditions.

Also known as “Reek Sunday”, the day commemorates the forty days and forty nights in 441 AD when St. Patrick is said to have fasted on the mountain’s summit.

Nowadays “Reek Sunday” attracts a mixture of climbing enthusiasts, traditionalists and devout Catholics who consider the mountain an Irish equivalent of Mount Sinai in Egypt.

Pilgrims, many of whom climbed barefoot, repented for their sins during the ascent, before attending a mass service in a chapel on the summit. The foot of the peak was dominated with refreshment stalls, pro-life campaigners and vendors, selling Catholic sacramentals such as rosary beads and scapulars.

From midnight on Saturday climbers began the climb which typically lasts upwards of two hours. The last quarter of the climb, where pilgrims had to negotiate the rocky conical peak, is where mountain rescue teams had to deal with most accidents.

With visibilty reduced to 60ft (20m) air rescue operations were deemed unsafe and those injured were transported down the mountain by stretcher.

Dick Harnedy of Mayo Mountain Rescue stated “most of the injuries sustained were to the knee or lower leg with one ten year old boy suffering suspected spinal injuries after another female climber fell on him while descending”.

This year’s number of casualties has now sparked calls on safety work being carried out on the mountain trail which has become badly eroded over the years.