Group of young people from Meath will travel to Lourdes at Easter as part of the annual Children's Week celebrations
A GROUP of young people from Meath will travel to Lourdes at Easter with the Irish Pilgrimage Trust as part of the annual Children's Week celebrations.
This year marks the 51st pilgrimage undertaken by the Irish Pilgrimage Trust, a registered charity based in Galway, but it is the first time that a Meath group will travel.
The group will be led by Keith Munnelly from Trim, who is a teacher at Beaufort College, Navan, and also runs the Special Olympics Club in Trim. Keith told how he first travelled to Lourdes with the Irish Pilgrimage Trust as a carer 20 years ago, and this year he will lead the first Meath group to travel.
"Groups travel from almost every county in Ireland and for years I went with the Cavan/Monaghan group and I decided after Covid that we would try set up a group in Meath," explained Keith.
The group will depart on Easter Sunday and spend six nights in Lourdes and there will be plenty of activities to keep them busy during their week long holiday, while the break also gives parents of those caring for children with additional needs a week's respite. There will be an Irish Mass on Tuesday and an international Mass on Thursday. Other events during the week include discos and parties, a beach trip to Biarritz, swimming, and football tournaments.
The local group is one of 46 groups making the journey. Each group has between seven and 11 young people who are invited as guests with 400 young people with additional needs travelling.
Overall between guests and carers, there will be 1,200 people from across Ireland travelling with flights departing from Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Belfast.
The nine young people travelling from Meath includes five girls and four boys who are aged between 14 and 19 and come from special schools and mainstream schools across the county.
Each group has a group leader, a nurse and a priest and each young person is assigned a carer. Local nurse Mandy Lynch from Robinstown will travel with the group and the priest accompanying them is Fr Ray Kelly, former parish priest of Oldcastle who is now based in Kilcormac, Rahan and Eglish parishes in Offaly.
The volunteers all cover their own expenses but the cost of the trip for the children is fundraised for.
Keith explained that pre-Covid the cost was around €13,000 but now it has risen to €19,000 and includes the cost of the young people's flights, accommodation, meals, transport and trips.
So far they have raised €11,000 towards the trip so there is a further €8,000 to be made up before they travel. Keith is appealing to any businesses who might be interested in sponsoring or part sponsoring a child to get in touch with Keith by emailing royalmunnelly@hotmail.com.