The purpose of the Ashling Murphy 23 Peaks Challenge is to honour Ashling’s love of sport, to raise funds to support the Ashling Murphy Memorial Fund in continuing Ashling’s strong legacy in the area of Traditional Irish Arts, Culture & Heritage for young people, and to support the invaluable service provided to children & young people affected by loss through death, separation or divorce by the Children’s Grief Centre.

For my own completion of the challenge it is also aimed at prompting discussion among men and raising our awareness of the greater degree of unease felt, and the vigilance that many women are forced to adopt, in pursuing the activities that they choose.

Ashling will be forever 23 years old, and the number 23 holds a special importance for Ashling’s family & friends. I am excited to create an endurance challenge focusing on the 23 highest peaks in the Republic of Ireland and I’m greatly honoured to be given the chance to raise funds for the Ashling Murphy Memorial Fund and the Children’s Grief Centre. I will be using the iDonate platform to gather funds for these amazing causes who will share the fundraising equally.

There are a number of key pillars to the Ashling Murphy 23 Peaks Challenge.

1) It is a sporting challenge & a celebration of Ashling’s love of sport & community.T

2) The challenge will start and finish in Ashling’s hometown of Blueball, Co. Offaly.

3) This challenge is designed to be unaided, meaning I must complete the entire challenge without any outside help, but I’m hoping that the challenge will connect with the community & while I won’t have anyone helping me directly, I’ll hopefully have lots of people joining me and supporting me along the way. I’ll be stopping in towns and villages that I pass through to get food & supplies, and hopefully this will bring lots of opportunities to interact, to promote the challenge, to gain more support & raise more funds.

4) Sometimes I’ll know where I’ll be pitching my tent, sometimes I won’t, and I’ll have to figure it out as I go. I’ve purposely designed the challenge so that not everything can be planned 100% and this element of uncertainty or unease built in, is aimed at building awareness and empathy for the greater degree of care & vigilance necessary for many women in going about their daily lives by comparison to men.

5) There is no set time limit for the challenge, I can complete it at my own pace, pausing for food, interacting with supporters etc as needed. It’s more important for me to interact than it is for me to be fast. Any opportunity I have to cycle with someone, to have people join me on the mountains, or to speak to anyone as part of promoting the challenge, I’ll be keen to take it. 

I’m not sure how my body will react to the cumulative strain after several days, but I’m expecting that my preparation and the support I get will allow me to push through each day, to recharge each night, and go again next morning until I arrive back in Blueball. And when the going gets tough, as it will, I can remind myself how privileged I am to be able to do things like this.

Paul Tierney