Man 'over the moon' after climbing Ireland's tallest peak 15 times in a row
Over 42 hours, avid hiker and mountaineer, Daniel 'Dann' Cooney, climbed to the top of Carrauntoohil in Co Kerry 15 times in a row, all to match the height of Mount Everest, which stands at 8,848 metres.
When asked how he was feeling a couple of days on, he said "a bit worse for wear, I'm not going to lie - but absolutely over the moon".
He thanked those who supported him and donated towards his goal of raising €15,000 during the endeavour.
But that figure was exceeded: "As of this morning, we're on €17,400, which is absolutely incredible."
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One he said the money will go to different animal rescue shelters around Ireland, with the hope that each one will receive "maybe €1,000".
Describing his experience, Mr Cooney said there were plenty of "ups and downs," lack of sleep, all kinds of weather, including getting "hit with all four seasons in the space of two hours".
"I won't say it's the best experience of my life, but it was very, very rewarding to see all the people come together.
He said he is "going to take it easy for the next few days," adding that the state of his feet is "not too bad at all".
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Nevertheless, it still makes you ponder their future in Connemara, especially with the Church being so damaged in Ireland in recent years by terrible scandals. Clearly not that many young Irish women want to become nuns anymore. Both ourselves and Roger felt there was a strong theme here, alongside all the frenetic activities on the estate, of an ageing order trying to preserve its way of life in a changing country and a changing world. That theme became an important part of our pitch to the prestigious Sound and Vision fund, and we were thrilled when CnaM (Coimisiún na Meán) also helped to back the project alongside RTÉ. Consequently we were given a remarkable level of access to the nuns way of life, from before dawn to well after dusk. At times it was hard keeping up with them, and they would be asking us if we were the ones who were tired! We shot the series in bursts over the course of a year, from high summer season through a magical Christmas to the spring bloom and religious climax of Easter. We covered everything from the arrival of 5000 American college football fans during a massive storm to the planting of new oak trees in a forest devastated by winter storms. Along the way, we followed characters ranging from soap and chocolate maker Sister Genevieve to Head Gardener Anja to Snowy, the estate's most popular Connemara pony. It was a time of huge change for the community too, from the highs of moving into a brand-new monastery and the election of a new Abbess to the sad loss of one of the community's most senior figures. Through it all, the sheer beauty of the place shone through, and seeing it through the seasons was a privilege. This was a pretty spectacular 'office' and we wanted to make the estate itself a 'character' in the show. Our Director of Photography Raja Nundlall did a wonderful job in showing it in all its glory; the bleaker beauty of autumn and winter in the Connemara Hills was particularly stunning. One key decision we made was to shoot a lot of the material in the monastery using a hand-held camera, with a rougher, observational style. So many shows about religious life play on the appeal of formal compositions to capture ritual and tradition. This can be very striking too, but we preferred a less 'stylised', more casual, fluid style to capture the nuns as human beings and reflect the warmth of their personalities and the group as a whole. Whether they were deep in prayer or playing games together in their recreation room, we hope that we have captured that. Ultimately, it is the people of Kylemore who made this a special series. CEO Conor, Marketing Manager Jessica and the rest of the team couldn't have been more warm, welcoming and helpful . The nuns gave us everything and more in terms of time and openness in interviews and all the staff were incredibly patient - especially when they were trying to feed thousands of people in the restaurant in the space of a few hours or just attempting to get a Connemara pony and her foal to stand in the right place for the perfect mum and baby shot! Whilst we had never considered a contemplative, religious life ourselves, we came to see that the nuns commitment to each other and to live for their community; to spend time in contemplation and to devote so much energy and effort to preserve the natural landscape and the architectural heritage of this stunning site might be something we can all learn from at this stage in the twenty-first century. Kylemore Abbey is open all year round. Not because its profitable to do so, but because this is a monastery first and foremost and it is part of their Benedictine ethos to welcome everyone whenever they turn up, from high summer season to the dead of January. As Sister Josephine told us, St Benedict believed that to welcome a visitor was to welcome Christ. We hope that viewers feel that special welcome too.
