Clonmel Dad to take on pilgrimage walk in Spain in memory of his son.
Brendanย O’Mahonyย a Clonmel man will embark on an emotional pilgrimage in Spain next month to mark the fourth anniversary of his son’s sudden death and raise funds for charity.
Conor O’Mahony from Cherrymount was just 32 when he died from Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) at his apartment in Dublin on July 25th 2006. Now his father Brendan is undertaking the 130 kilometres sponsored pilgrimage walk โ El Camino Ingles – from Ferrol in Galicia to Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain in Conor’s memory.
The walk will begin on July 17th and arrive in Santiago on July 25th, exactly four years to the day since Conor died.
“It’s a way of remembering Conor and I’m doing the walk in his memory”, says Brendan.
As well as a training schedule that has him pounding the roads around Clonmel early in the morning and late in the evening, Brendan is also collecting sponsorship for CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young), a charity founded eight years ago by parents who experienced sudden and unexplained death within their families.
CRY is a self-supporting registered charity that doesn’t receive government
funding of any kind. The organisation raises awareness of cardiac risk in the young and sponsorship from Brendan’s walk will support CRYs Screening and Evaluation Centre at TaUaght Hospital, where families and individuals at risk can be evaluated, while counselling and support is also provided to families affected.
The Galicia area holds a special resonance for the O’Mahony family. Brendan O’Mahony Is to undertake a walk in Spain to raise money for charity in memory of his son who died suddenly Conor, who spoke Spanish and Portuguese fluently, travelled all over the world and his trip to the area in 2005 was his last holiday before he died.
A visit to Galicia was recommended by Conor to his family and Brendan feels that the time is right to undertake the pilgrimage. He will be joined for the last 10 kilometres of the walk by his wife Margaret and Kevin, one of the couple’s three surviving sons, which, falling as it will on Conor’s anniversary, will add to the poignancy of the occasion.
The walk will finish with midday Mass at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela on July 25th, the feast’ of St. James (Santiago in Spanish), where the congregation of several thousand overflows into the square. Whenever St. James’ Day falls on a Sunday the cathedral declares a Holy or Jubilee Year. A time honoured tradition has it that pilgrims reaching Santiago during a Holy Year, and fulfilling certain conditions, are granted a plenary indulgence at a special ceremony.
Brendan, a well-known travel agent, has been preparing for the walk for several months and his training schedule has seen him lose three and-a-since St. Stephen’s Day. He will walk between 20 and 25 kilometres (around 15 miles) each day during the pilgrimage.
The route will take him through a remote, rural and sparsely populated area, with a few steep climbs thrown in for good measure. He will have to carry his belongings in a back-pack – the recommended weight is 10 kilos, or 22 lbs – which will further test his endurance during a trek that will take him over 80 miles in nine days. Brendan, who already speaks Spanish, has also learned the local Gallego dialect to help smooth his journey through the region on Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, a walk that traces the footsteps of early Christian pilgrims and honours an early martyr (beheaded by King Herod) who’s believed to be buried in Santiago de Compostela.
Brendan will pay his own expenses for the trip and all funds raised will be donated to CRY.
He has been greatly encouraged by the response so far. Anyone who wishes to contribute sponsorship may do so by contacting him at his home at 91, Cherrymount or at Clonmel Travel in Mitchel Street.