GAA clubs get moving to support Pieta House

St Vincent’s player and Defence Forces member Lorna Coffey uses her training to crawl under netting alongside Darren Coyle-Garde of Pieta House. The club is urging members to join a charity appeal that will see them ‘walk, run, jog, or crawl the distance to her’ in Lebanon in aid of Pieta House and Mná Feasa. Picture: Larry Cummins

GAA clubs are stepping up to help suicide charity Pieta House as it faces an unprecedented funding crisis.

Members of St Finbarr’s GAA club on the southside of Cork City are planning a socially distanced million-step fundraiser to help bridge the €6.5m shortfall caused by the cancellation of the charity’s flagship annual Darkness Into Light (DIL) fundraiser next weekend.

On the northside, members of St Vincent’s camogie club plan to walk the equivalent distance to travelling to Lebanon to help the charity and Mná Feasa.

The Covid-imposed cancellation of DIL has forced the charity to slash costs and cut salaries. It announced 28 full-time equivalent compulsory redundancies in the area of clinical support over the weekend.

It is expected that there will be further reductions in a number of areas through temporary lay-offs and non-renewal of contracts.

The charity said that, despite the funding difficulties, its focus remains on maintaining its service at a time when they have never been needed more.

Research research has found that one in five Irish people experience clinically defined levels of depression.

Even before the Covid-19 crisis began here, demand for Pieta’s services was surging, with calls to its helpline up 49% year-on-year and contacts to its text line up 46%.

The Barrs club has encouraged its members and their families to do a 5k or walk 5,000 steps either in their backyard or within a 2km radius of their homes to fundraise for the charity next Saturday, May 9, when DIL should have taken place.

St Finbarr’s have launched a fundraising initiative for Pieta House.

“We hope that other clubs from all sports across the city might support us and organise their own members to do the same,” said one of the organisers, senior hurling club chairman Mick Finn.

It will support Pieta’s replacement Sunrise Appeal, which has asked people to get up and watch the sunrise at 5am that morning and donate.

Mr Finn said: “We hope that other GAA clubs and other sports clubs will support us or follow suit. Suicide prevention and bereavement counselling recognises no boundaries or rivalries. This would be sport coming together to defeat suicide.”

He urged people to get involved in whatever way they can, once they abide by the social distancing requirements.

“It could be a case of measuring out a route in the garden or a stretch of street or road and doing the 5km or 1,000 steps, or whatever is manageable,” said Mr Finn. “It could mean people walking 2m apart around The Lough or around the block near their homes.”

The Barrs will have a GoFundMe page on Facebook and will have collection buckets in supporting supermarkets and also in O’Connell’s Butchers, The Lough.

Meanwhile, St Vincent’s hope their Cork to Lebanon walk will help Pieta House and Mná Feasa.

One of their members, Carol Geaney, is a member of the Defence Forces, is who is on peace-keeping duty in Lebanon, 5,400kms away.

The club has encouraged its members to walk or run every day, post the distance they have done, and it will all be added together until they hit 5,400kms.

The rescheduled DIL walks are due to take place on October 3.

- Darran Coyle-Garde, head of fund-raising at Pieta House, Cork, urged anyone in crisis or experiencing suicidal ideation or self-harm, or who are bereaved by suicide, to contact the charity on its 24/7 crisis helpline 1800 247247, by emailing [e-mail], or by texting ‘help’ to 51444.