UCD Mountaineering Club

by Mick O'Shea (Captain 1973/75)
I joined UCDMC in the Autumn of 1970. The driving force at the time was Jimmy Murphy. Jimmy had been on two climbing trips to Zermatt around this time. His climbing partners were members of other Clubs as rock-climbing was not a major part of club activity at this stage and students were too poor to travel very far. In the Club the main body of original members was still active. Many of these were graduates, so there were plenty of cars available for weekends away. The Sunday walk in Wicklow was the mainstay of Club activity with the usual trips down the country on long weekends.

In the Summer of 1971 Jimmy introduced rock-climbing as a Club activity with Sean Darby as his outstanding protégé. Claire and Bairbre Sheridan, Billy Murphy, Anne Coffey, Judy Ceannt, Sheila Willis and Mick O'Shea were his most devoted disciples. However the rock-climbing scene never really developed in the club during this period. Claire Sheridan developed her outstanding skills elsewhere. The first Scottish trip we organised was to The Isle of Arran, where we cut our teeth on Goat Fell and A'Chir in October 1971. The entire trip cost me the grand total of £8.By 1973 Sean Darby was doing climbs like Scimitar Crack and sarcophagus (HVS) in Glendalough. Not many people in the country were climbing harder at the time. Sea cliff climbing had not been developed to any extent at this stage and activity was mainly concentrated in Dalkey Quarry and on the mountain crags like Glendalough, Luggala, Loch Barra, Bencor and Coum Gowlan.

As in later times there were certain weekends which seemed to mark the start of a new era. There were two such in our case - both held in Ballinclea Youth Hostel in February 1971 where there was an upsurge of activity with a large influx of enthusiastic new members. Around this time Outdoor Pursuit Centres were becoming popular and a lot of Club members got involved in Tiglin activities. The Sheridans, Sheila Willis, Des Doyle and most notably Lorcan O'Sullivan went on many training courses and studied for Mountain Leadership Certificates. Lorcan in particular used this to good effect, organising navigation and safety exercises in the club. His contribution in this regard was notable and had an enormous impact on attitudes and procedures in the Club for a long time. (Lorcan is currently Chairman of Bord Oiluint Sleibhe - The Irish
mountain Training Board).

In 1973 the older members formed a separate group similar to the generation who would form Club Cualann in 1982. The departure left a huge gap, reducing Club membership dramatically and also depriving us of private transport which meant that weekends away from Wicklow became very infrequent. The bread and butter activity was still hill-walking in Wicklow with memories of endless long road walks from places like Glencree to Enniskerry, Lacken to Blessington and the doyenne of all, the alcohol assisted trudge from Fentons to Whites Cross. There were many many night-hikes and bivvies not to mention Lug Walks in the traditional manner with midnight starts commonplace. We even had a bash at a couple of Art O'Neill walks although I'm not sure why. We often camped in the heart of the mountains in places like Glen Inagh, Doolough, Rossbeigh and Bunbeg with much time being devoted to hitching back and forth from Dublin. I remember walking from Killarney railway station to Jack Walshe's in Glencar with Colm D'Arcy one night at Christmas in 1973. We spent two Easters (1973 and 1974) in Doolough. This represented our only period of route development in Coum Dubh. I spent a nerve-wracking week in Darby's firing line as he put up some impressive routes. Sean drifted away from the climbing scene shortly afterwards. He returned briefly a few years later with the Dru in Chamonix being his most outstanding achievement. Because of transport difficulties we often went to North Wales with boat, train and bus connections allowing for quick access to the mountains. Later on as an alternative to hitching, cycling to distant places became popular. Anne Deroe, Noelle O'Shea and Therese McGurk once did a return trip to Bunbeg in Donegal. Catherine Sherry was particularly prominent in this regard once cycling to Foxford in one day. Eugene O'Riordan and Catherine did another marathon to Glen Inagh. There were many trips on bikes down to Glendalough with climbing gear on our backs. The cycles home from the Quarry became legendary with the stretch along the Metals enshrined in memory. It became a no-go area for courting couples for a few years as the peleton could strike at any time. One bollard on a particularly dimly lit section always seemed as if it should claim some victims but never did.

Eugene O'Riordan arrived on the scene in 1974 and quickly made a significant impact. He brought fashion to new lows never previously imagined. His enthusiasm encouraged a large influx in 1976 when he was Meets Secretary. Christmas in Castlegregory that year heralded a new era just as Ballinclea had done five years before. It was here that Kieran Finch began the craze of midnight swims at Rossbeigh to welcome in the new year. Euge's own party piece was dragging large parties of innocents up Central Buttress in Dalkey. These sorties inevitably finished in the as dark the numbers were so many. I remember once being stuck because I couldn't see and having to wait for a passing car to illuminate the route to the top.

At this time the Mountaineering community was a tightly-knit one with close links between the various Clubs which were almost entirely Dublin and Belfast based. Many of us practically lived in the IMC hut in Glendalough. We followed the fortunes of the big name climbers. If you were unobtrusive enough McKenzie, Mulhall or Redmond might drag you up some classic like Quartz Gully in Glendalough. We were fed on stories of Spilikin Ridge before the Spilikin fell off (before even our time). Orienteering was the main alternative activity, canoeing only becoming popular amongst climbers in the late 1970's. The tradition of going to Scotland at Easter began at this time with early trips to Glencoe, Skye and Torridon. I climbed my first Scottish gully with Des Doyle, Mick Scott and Bairbre Sheridan in 1977 on Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe. In 1977 the first trip exclusively of Club members to the Alps occurred. The five of us managed to climb Mont Blanc but little else. We were a little out of our depth and probably should have gone elsewhere on our first trip. Since then such trips have become common place. The standard of climbing inevitably improved. Christy Neary was in the forefront of those pushing up the standards. We also began to climb more regularly on sea-cliffs particularly in the Burren and at Malinbeg.

The Mountaineering Club has provided me personally with a treasure of great memories but also with a wealth of great friendships. The Club I entered was a warm and welcoming one. It helped make College a wonderful experience and many of us are still reaping the benefits. It has also given us a pastime in which we will indulge for many years.