Lynam Lecture delivered by Paddy O Leary

Date: 06/12/2018
Venue: Chartered Accountants Ireland Lecture Hall, 47 – 49 Pearse Street, Dublin 2, refreshments will be available from 19:00 with the lecture commencing at 19:45.

See Mountaineering Ireland website for tickets

People, Peaks and Places: off the beaten track  by Paddy O Leary

Mountaineering Ireland are delighted to announce that Paddy O Leary will deliver this year’s Lynam Lecture “People, Peaks and Places: off the beaten track”.  Paddy has been involved in mountaineering in one form or another for sixty-six years. He set several hill-walking records in his early years. Following the usual progression from rock climbing in Ireland and experience in the Alps, he sought broader endeavours in higher ranges and was the leader of the first Irish expeditions to the Himalaya and Peru. He gradually moved from the climbing of well-known peaks to the exploration of little-known mountainous areas such as the Mountains of the Moon in Zaire, Bogda Ola in China and particularly the districts of Kinnaur and Spiti in India. Besides being the first western mountaineer to visit Kinnaur in over fifty years he combined the crossing of many high passes with route-finding to previously unvisited peaks and attempting, occasionally successfully, to climb some of these. He has returned to Kinnaur many times and takes a particular interest in the culture of its intriguing, handsome and prosperous people.

Paddy was Director of the National Adventure Centre at Tiglin in Wicklow for twenty years and was responsible for drawing up and implementing the syllabuses for courses leading to most of the leader and instructor qualifications which are now so much a part of the mountaineering experience in Ireland. He was a founding member of the Spillikin Club, the Association for Adventure Sports and the body which has become Mountaineering Ireland.

He is an active member of the Irish Mountaineering Club and has recently been trekking in Austria with his grandchildren.

The Lynam Lecture started in 2011 in memory of Joss Lynam, one of Ireland’s best-known mountaineers. This was in recognition of his enormous achievements in hillwalking, climbing and mountaineering over some sixty years. During his lifetime, Joss initiated numerous developments in these areas of our sport in Ireland and was the inspiration for a number of generations of Irish mountaineers.

Joss Lynam’s achievements include many mountaineering expeditions to the Greater Ranges. He also made an outstanding voluntary contribution to adventure sports in Ireland. Joss is known to many Irish and international walking enthusiasts for his many hillwalking guidebooks. He was the editor of the Irish Mountain Log for more than twenty years. He continued as the Literary Editor of the Irish Mountain Log up to the time of his death. Since the inauguration of the Lynam Lecture many leading national and international mountaineers have delivered enthralling lectures.