Clare Coast Guard volunteer Bernard Lucas left Ireland at the weekend for Tanzania on the 2022 Caitriona Lucas Challenge to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Dedicated to the memory of his late wife, Caitriona – the first Irish Coast Guard volunteer to die on active service – Lucas and team mates Cormac Coyne of Inis Oírr and Eoin Keane from Kilfenora aim to raise funds for the Burren Chernobyl Project.

The 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) peak is the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world.

Acclimatising to altitude will be one of the team’s greatest challenges, given the very individual impact on physiology of lower oxygen levels.

Bernard Lucas and colleagues Cormac Coyne, Micheál Healy and Eoin Keane on the summit of Kerry's Mount Brandon during final training for this year's Caitriona Lucas Challenge

Their final training run together involved participating in the Tom Crean Endurance Walk in Kerry last weekend.

Covid-19 had forced a pause to the annual challenge, which involved climbing 26 mountains across 32 counties in just 10 days in 2018 for charity.

Cormac Coyne, Pauliina Kauppila and Bernard Lucas on the Tom Crean Endurance Walk Photo: Cormac Coyne

The following year, 2019, Lucas and five colleagues – Cormac Coyne, Michael Healy, Pauliina Kauppila, Eoin Keane and Deirdre Linnane – travelled to Greenland for the Arctic Circle trail. An estimated average of 300 people annually tackle the 100-mile wilderness walk.

In an interview with Afloat’s Wavelengths podcast earlier this month, Lucas spoke about the Kilimanjaro climb preparations.

He also spoke about the situation with Doolin Coast Guard where he and nine other volunteers were dismissed, and about many unanswered questions relating to his wife’s death off the Clare coast on September 12th, 2016.

Several weeks ago, international maritime lawyer Michael Kingston questioned the delay in holding an inquest into the highly experienced Irish Coast Guard coxswain’s death.

Bernard Lucas on the Tom Crean Endurance Walk in Kerry (photo Cormac Coyne)

“It is shocking that almost six years after Ms Lucas’s death, no inquest has as yet been heard,” Mr Kingston told The Sunday Independent, pointing out that such a hearing would “properly investigate” what happened.

Mother-of-two Ms Lucas (41), an advanced coxswain with Doolin Coast Guard in Co Clare, had offered to help out the neighbouring Coast Guard unit from Kilkee in the search for a missing man.

She died after the Kilkee rigid inflatable boat (RIB) capsized in a shallow surf zone. Two other crew members on board the RIB, who were also thrown into the sea, survived.

Her husband and a number of Kilkee Coast Guard volunteers criticised aspects of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board report, which was published in two parts due to the extensive nature of submissions on the draft.

As Ms Lucas was pronounced dead in hospital in Limerick, responsibility for her inquest is with the Limerick coroner’s office.

The newspaper report said that the Limerick coroner’s office did not respond to several requests for comment 

You can listen back to Bernard Lucas’s interview here And more details on the Caitriona Lucas Challenge are here

On June 25th, Clare coast guard volunteer Bernard Lucas, along with Cormac Coyne of Inis Oir and Eoin Keane from Kilfenora will set out to climb 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest freestanding mountain in the world.

The trio are making the ascent for the Caitriona Lucas Challenge, with funds going to the Burren Chernobyl Project. The challenge is named after Bernard’s late wife, Caitriona, who lost her life off the Clare coast on September 12th, 2016 - the first Irish Coast Guard volunteer to die while on a call-out.

Bernard spoke to Wavelengths this week about the climb, about the situation with Doolin Coast Guard where he and nine other volunteers were dismissed, and about many unanswered questions relating to Caitriona’s death.

Listen to Wavelengths below

Asked to respond to Bernard’s appeal for Minister of State for Transport Hildegarde Naughton to meet the Doolin Coast Guard unit, her department said that the Coast Guard is “currently fully engaged in the process of rebuilding the Doolin Unit, guided by the recommendations outlined in Kieran Mulvey’s report, issued on December 10th 2021.

“We can confirm that the selection of volunteers to provide service to the re-constituted unit on an interim basis as per the report recommendations was completed and those selected were informed,” it said.

Cormac Coyne (left) and Bernard Lucas, in training for the Caitriona Lucas Challenge to Mount Kilimanjaro in June 2022

“We can now confirm that management within the Coast Guard has commenced the process of recruitment to the Doolin Unit on a permanent basis. We can also confirm they have recently been in contact with all former volunteers in relation to this recruitment process,” the department said.

“The minister and the Coast Guard are fully engaged in this process and are very committed to ensuring Doolin Coast Guard Unit’s continued growth and renewal,” it continued.

“The minister meets with and engages with Coast Guard Unit volunteers on a regular basis and will also meet with Doolin Coast Guard Unit volunteers as part of this continuous engagement,” it said.

Details of the Caitriona Lucas Challenge to Mount Kilimanjaro are here

Caitriona and Bernard Lucas, Newfoundland, in October 2014