Excitement building as Tarbert prepares for its third annual ‘Darkness into Light’

The last two years of the annual fundraising walk of ‘hope’ have raised vital funds for the work done by Pieta House; since its introduction as an official DIL venue back 2022, the North Kerry walk has attracted thousands of supporters and organisers are hoping that it will be more of the same again in 2024.

The start time for the walk is 4.15am and it will set off, as usual, from the Tarbert Comprehensive school before heading down past Leslie’s Woods to the pier and back again, finishing at the Tarbert Comprehensive.

Pat Kissane, Chairperson of the Tarbert DIL organising committee, spoke to The Kerryman this week about the walk.

"We are going well with preparations. We have two local registration days coming up. One is on Saturday, May 4 and that will be held in the Tarbert Community Centre from 10am until 2pm, then the second and the last of these days will be taking place on Friday, May 10 from 10am to4/5pm and that will be in the Tarbert Bridewell,” he said.

An important message that Pat wanted to get across this week is the message of sustainability with regards to t-shirts.

"What they're trying to do as well in the last couple of years is that they're trying to get people to re-use the old t-shirts that they have from previous years as it's the exact same t-shirt year on year."

For those signing up for the first time, Pat said:

"We'll have t-shirts until we run out of them. We don't have a limitless supply of them," he laughed, adding "I only get so many and when they're gone, they're gone."

On the issue of volunteers, Pat said that all they'll be doing is helping out with a bit of parking,

“All they’ll be doing is telling people where to go for a bit of parking, that's all it is. So volunteers will just be directing people to the nearest car park, that's all,” he said.

Anyone interested in volunteering can message the Tarbert Darkness into Light Facebook page or if anyone knows Pat personally, they can contact him directly.

In the lead up to the event, Tarbert NS will be doing the following in preparation of the big day.

They will be holding a ‘Crazy Hair Day’ on Friday, May 10 where they are asking all children to donate a few euros and have some crazy hair colours and styles. In addition to this, the school’s pupils will complete DIL paintings and display them in the school’s windows.