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Mountain Rescue Ireland (or IMRA) has just launched a Facebook page. The purpose of the page is to promote not just what IMRA does but also what the teams do and to spread the word to a larger audience. Many of the teams have their own websites and Facebook pages for their own promotion, but the idea is that the IMRA Facebook page can be used to promote team events or to highlight things that the teams feel are important. Most importantly, it also provides Mountain Rescue Ireland with a mechanism to receive feedback from our members and our service users – the general public.

The Facebook page currently has a list of Irish Mountain Rescue Teams (MRTs) and their websites, links to the teams’ Facebook pages, and a selection of photos and videos showing various aspects of Mountain Rescue. The content will continue to develop over the coming months.

 The project to create our Facebook presence was the brainchild of John Naughton, a member of our Supporter’s Club. John, a 31 year old currently studying for his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the National College of Ireland in Dublin and a keen member of the An Oige Hillwalking Club, fancied a new challenge to get his teeth into. Asked why he took on the project for IMRA he states “I believe that Facebook is a brilliant way of getting your message out in an informal way and it was a missed opportunity for Mountain Rescue to be raising its profile. I also enjoyed the fact that IMRA gave me total responsibility for the site which has made the project even more rewarding for me.” 

 Our Facebook administrator - John Naughton - in the Wicklow hills.

John worked closely with IMRA’s Development Officer, Paul Whiting “A number of our members had suggested to me that IMRA should have a Facebook page. I knew this would end up being another responsibility and I knew I would never have the time or capacity to devote to the project to do it justice. When John approached me with the idea of developing the Facebook page, it was new territory for us, i.e., having a volunteer who wasn’t a member of one of our mountain rescue teams take on a project for us.”

John was a volunteer with two other charities 1) Camara which repairs old personal computers to send to Africa, and 2) SWICN which teaches inner city kids how to use personal computers. Given this experience, Paul was confident that John would make a good volunteer for IMRA, “John has shown great initiative on this project. He ensured that I’m setup as a dual administrator for the site along with himself, and he has also checked in with me to make sure that the site reflects the culture and ethos of Mountain Rescue. The project has been a great success for us in regards to providing extra functionality and extra capacity to IMRA and we hope to be able to do similar projects with a new style of Mountain Rescue volunteer in the future.”

In closing off, John and Paul would like to thank the Donegal MRT and Ray Bradfield of SEMRA for their help and permission in re-using some of their photos and content.

 We look forward to the interaction with our members and supporters and the support that this new communications medium will bring to Mountain Rescue in Ireland.

 So to check out the page and to join us, click on the following link:-

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mountain-Rescue-Ireland-IMRA/119872744702510?ref=sgm