{"id":458059,"date":"2026-05-20T08:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/458059\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T08:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:19:07","slug":"padraig-ohora-and-irish-team-reach-the-summit-of-everest-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/458059\/","title":{"rendered":"P\u00e1draig O\u2019Hora and Irish team reach the summit of Everest \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\u00e1draig O\u2019Hora<\/a> has reached the summit of Everest<\/a>. The former Mayo footballer was part of a three-man Irish team whose 47-day expedition in Nepal finally made it to the top of the world\u2019s highest mountain in the early hours of Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Hora and his team-mates \u00c9anna McGowan from Dublin and Adam Sweeney from Waterford became the first all-Irish team since 2003 to reach the summit.<\/p>\n

Their achievement was confirmed by team leader Jason Black, the Donegal mountaineer who would have been alongside them but had to abandon his own summit attempt earlier in the week with an injured ankle. Black relayed the news from Everest Base Camp shortly before 2am Irish time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory has been made on the slopes of Mount Everest this morning,\u201d Black posted on Instagram. \u201cAfter 47 days Team Ireland has successfully reached the highest point on Earth. This journey was about far more than standing on a summit. It was about resilience, teamwork, belief and carrying the hopes of many people all the way to the top of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis success belongs to the climbers, their families, our incredible Sherpa team and everyone who followed and supported this journey. More importantly to the children of this world \u2013 this expedition has shown that if you dream big, believe in yourself and never be afraid to chase what is in your heart, you can achieve anything. At a time when our world feels broken by war and hatred, today reminds us that there is still unity, hope and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a long and complex climb for the Irish team. O\u2019Hora, who played for Mayo across seven seasons and started their last All-Ireland final in 2021, has been keeping a diary of the expedition<\/a> for The Irish Times since ever since they left Ireland at the end of March. <\/p>\n

In it, the frustrations of a particularly arduous climbing season on Everest have become clear. The team have been met by avalanches, icefalls and inhospitable weather at every turn, causing them to constantly change their plans and delay the summit push. \u201cThis season is a nightmare up here,\u201d he wrote in his most recent dispatch last week. \u201cThe weather is causing delays and there has been setback after setback.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most recent delay came on Tuesday morning, when their first attempt at reaching the top of Everest ended just 400m short. Heavy snow had turned to ice, covering their climbing ropes and making it too dangerous to go any further. <\/p>\n

At that point, they took the decision to retreat back to Camp 4, around 1,500 metres from the summit, to regroup. After resting, eating and being resupplied with oxygen, they set out again on Tuesday afternoon. By then, there was huge traffic on the mountain, with about 600 climbers attempting to summit before the window closes for the season. The final push took just over 12 hours to cover the ground but they got there.<\/p>\n

This morning\u2019s summit brings the total of Irish people to have reached the world\u2019s highest peak to 85. At just 22, Sweeney becomes the youngest Irish person to do it. O\u2019Hora (33) was climbing in aid of Mayo Mental Health Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P\u00e1draig O\u2019Hora has reached the summit of Everest. The former Mayo footballer was part of a three-man Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[198114,61,60,43,169268],"class_list":["post-458059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-everest-expedition","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-padraig-o-hora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}