IT is being billed as a sun-set and it translates as exactly that – dancing a set at that particular time of the day on one of Killarney’s landmark peaks to raise funds for charity.
Killarney Walking Festival will host a charity walk on Strickeen on Friday, June 22 in aid of the Kerry Parents and Friends Buy A Bus campaign and everybody is invited to participate.
The Kerry Parents and Friends has played an enormous role in the lives of families in Kerry living with intellectual difficulties and the Buy A Bus campaign is the initiative of Agnes Rooney whose sister, Mairead, has been helped by the charity for decades.
Agnes, who is her sister’s carer, said she would be lost without the association’s assistance which has led to her ongoing drive to raise €60,000 to purchase a wheelchair-accessible bus for the charity. The present fleet of 17 buses are deteriorating with no funding available for replacements.
“These buses take Mairead and her friends to work, home, hospital appointments, social training, respite and holidays. They travel all over Kerry and truly support them and their families in ways that the greater community may not understand,” Agnes said.
The charity walk will depart from Kate Kearney’s Cottage, at the entrance to the Gap of Dunloe, at 7.30pm on June 22 and participants will be asked to dance a full Kerry polka on the summit.
The Buy a Bus campaign is also one of the beneficiaries of this year’s Ring of Kerry charity cycle and Agnes is actively seeking cyclists to register to support the charity on the Ring of Kerry website.
Killarney Walking Festival will take place on June 23/24 and it is described as a celebration of Ireland’s highest mountain range.
Iconic treks being arranged will include, Carrauntoohil, the exhilarating Coomloughra Horse Shoe, vertical ridges not for the faint hearted on the eastern Reeks, the Purple and Tomies mountains and Cronin’s Loop Heritage Walk with historian Tomás O’Sullivan.
The event director is John O’Sullivan of the Reeks Guiding Company and the Base Camp for this year’s festival is Kate Kearney’s Cottage. For more details go to www.killarneywalkingfestival.ie.
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