At 4.15am on Saturday 7th May over 120,000 people who had left the comfort of their warm beds and homes gathered to take park in the annual Darkness Into Light walk for the suicide and self harm charity Pieta House. It’s the 8th year of the event which has grown from 400 people walking in Phoenix Park to 7 countries around the world from Australia to Abu Dhabi.

Pieta House is a suicide and self-harm crisis centre founded in Lucan in 2006. Pieta House have nine centres throughout Ireland and provides a professional one-to-one therapeutic service for those who are experiencing suicidal ideation or engaging in self-harm. Over the last ten years they have supported more than 20,000 people, with over 5,000 of those seeking help in 2015.

A number of the team at CPAS took part in the event and between us we covered 6 locations, Phoenix Park, Marley Park, Naas, Malahide, Skerries and Navan for what was an uplifting and at times an emotional event.

Here are some images we gathered on the morning, well done to all who took part in this wonderful fundraising initiative.