Q.  Why do you use three different names?

A.  Mountain Rescue Ireland is also know as Tarrtháil Sléibh Éireann and the Irish Mountain Rescue Assocation (IMRA).

Mountain Rescue Ireland: This simplified name is used for our fundraising efforts and in dealing with the general public. It was adopted as the official name of the organisation in 2010 but it may take a year or two for us to move everything under the new title so bear with us as we go through this process.

Tarrtháil Sléibhe Éireann: This is the translation of the Mountain Rescue Ireland into Irish. This is important because a number of our teams operate in Gaeltacht areas.

Irish Mountain Rescue Association (IMRA): This is the name that the organisation was formed under in 1965. It is the name we used internally amongst the member teams and externally from an operational perspective with our stakeholders. At the national level, our stakeholders include the Gardai, PSNI, Irish Coast Guard, Maritime Coastguard Agency, and the Irish Air Corps. At the international level, they include Austrian Mountain Rescue Service ( aka Österreicher Bergrettungsdienst ) Mountain Rescue England and Wales, the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, the Mountain Rescue Association [USA] and the International Commission on Alpine Rescue.

Q.  Why do you use two different logos?

A.  Both logos are visible at the top of the page. The Irish Mountain Rescue Association logo can be seen on the right while the Mountain Rescue Ireland logo is on the left.

The Irish Mountain Rescue Association logo has a long tradition. It originates from the UK at a time before mobile phones; even land lines were a bit of rarety. The tradition was that in areas that climbers and hill walkers frequented, there would normally be a building at the bottom of a mountain that featured a plaque that designated the building as a "Rescue Post", i.e. the local mountain rescue team could be contacted from this building. The plaque would have the red circle with the white cross (the international symbol for mountain rescue) and the words "Rescue Post". It was normally placed on a hotel, hostel or possibly even a private residence that in an emergency, you could walk into the building, and the local people would know how to call out the local mountain rescue team. The picture on the right shows a briefing taking place in front of a UK rescue post during the 1950's. You can see the "Rescue Post" sign on the pillar above the group. (Photo courtesy of Georgina Duff, Bob Sharp and Judy Whiteside).

In Ireland, an early example of this can be seen on the Glenmalure Hotel (Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow) which has a plaque above the door declaring the hotel as the Rescue Post for the Glen of Imaal Mountain Rescue Team. More recently Dublin & Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team have resurrected the tradition with a plaque for their new base at the Roundwood Garda Station.

IMRA took this sign, due to its long association with Mountain Rescue in the UK, and made a few modifications. It changed "Rescue Post" for "Rescue Team" with the idea that any teams wanting to, could replace the word "Rescue" with the name of their team. The Mayo MRT is an example of a team that has done this.

The Mountain Rescue Ireland logo was introduced in 2008. Originally it had the same look and feel as the IMRA logo with a few slight differences. The reason for introducing this logo was to provide a simpler name and image for our fundraising efforts and when dealing with the general public.