Participants in Gaisce - The President's Award take on a four day survival course in the Wicklow mountains.
Under the supervision of the Irish Army 22 young people in Gaisce – The President's Award are being put to the test. Over a four day period they must survive in the wilderness of the Wicklow mountains with little or no food.
The non-competitive Gaisce programme is offered at three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Participant Carol Green is working for her Silver Award. She must set and achieve challenging personal goals in four different sections.
For participant Ross Whelan, Gaisce is all about the challenge and the team work,
I'm interested in going into the army later on so I thought it would be the ideal thing.
The Gaisce group are given a briefing before their survival course challenge commences. Course leader Captain Séan Finnegan acknowledges the course will be quite physically demanding as the group will be on the ground for approximately 72 hours,
During that time we will be engaging in a number of exercise and activities ranging from mountaineering to orienteering, abseiling, route marches.
If anything goes wrong the army has a team of medics on standby for the duration of the survival course.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 21 July 1992. The reporter is John Finnerty.
