Laois Civil Defence volunteers at Dublin and Mayo events for Papal visit

Laois Civil Defence volunteers will work in both Mayo and Dublin this weekend for the Papal visit to Ireland.

Laois is the only county to have Civil Defence staff taking part at both Knock and Phoenix Park events this weekend as Pope Francis visits Ireland.

The volunteers will work with paramedics and as first responders assisting the gardai and ambulance services. They will also provide mini buses and ambulances and their state of the art communications unit is will be put to use in Knock.

Volunteers will be involved on the ground on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 August supporting the principal response agencies of the gardai and the National Ambulance Services.

At Knock Shrine, 140 national volunteers will be on duty and coordinated by Rose Doherty who is the Civil Defence Officer for Mayo.

The 140 volunteers are drawn from counties Laois, Donegal, Sligo, Roscommon and Galway all working together.

Damian Dollard from Portlaoise is the Laois Civil Defence drone team member who helped gardai with mapping Phoenix Park for security.

For Civil Defence Officer, Liam Preston, this is not his first time to work at a Papal visit as he was also on duty with Laois Civil Defence in 1979 when Pope John Paul II visited Ireland.

Mr Preston said it is a very different country now and a different event.

“It is a different kind of event, there are a lot of different elements involved that are not in other events.

“It is different to 1979, I was up there at that stage at Phoenix Park, I haven’t seen either site yet this year but it is different, we are all on radio now, compared to the communication back then technology now is so far advanced.

“On our communication  unit we have mapping and our radios are mapped, there are only a few of these in the country,” he said.

Laois Civil Defence group is one of the most advanced in the country, which Mr Preston says is down to huge events like Electric Picnic in the county and the location means they network with groups in other counties.

Laois Civil Defence volunteers won’t have much down time after the Papal visit as they will be back to work next week when over 50,000 trek to Laois for Electric Picnic.

Mr Preston said that many counties come together to work at the festival because it is such a large event.

“The whole civil defence work at Electric Picnic not just Laois, they come in from other counties.

“This year we are doing the pontoon at Electric Picnic for the swimming. Cork, Kerry, Sligo Civil Defence will help,” he said.

Mr Preston praised the work of the volunteers, he said the hours and effort they put in is ‘phenomenal, and all at their own expense’.

Final equipment checks in advance of the Papal visit this weekend. pic.twitter.com/6L7jzTsnA1

— Laois Civil Defence (@LaoisCivilDefen) August 23, 2018

This week one of our drone team members took part in one of the largest operations the systems have been used for to date. Teams from Dublin, Laois, Cork South, Cavan, and Wexford completed an aerial survey and digital mapping of the Phoenix Park in advance of the Papal Visit. pic.twitter.com/Q2NUIi5m6A

— Laois Civil Defence (@LaoisCivilDefen) July 31, 2018