El Camino Del Garda

The El Camino del Garda Event Management Team are currently in Graiguenamanagh checking out the sights and sounds.

Our event next year will conclude here on the 22nd of May, after 110km walked from Robertstown in Co Kildare along the River Barrow.

A massive thank you to Eoin in Riverboat Adventures for the tour and the local knowledge 🙏

From the event management team in El Camino Del Garda we want to thank the Little Blue Heroes Foundation for the handover today. A brilliant amount was raised for the fantastic Charity.

We want to thank The Little Blue Heroes Foundation for their support, advice and assistance since our inception. Your help has been invaluable.

So, onto 2024!

El Camino del Garda Cuatro will take place on the 20th of May to the 23rd of May 2024. The event will be 110km of the Beautiful Barrow Greenway from Robertstown in Kildare to Graiguenamanagh in Co. Kilkenny, walked over three days.

This event, like each one before will be a sponsored walk by Gardaí, in aid of

Oscar's Kids Ireland
BUMBLEance Children's Ambulance Service
& Cian's Kennels!

All support will be greatly appreciated and further details of the event will be released near the end of the summer!

But for now, thank you all again for your ongoing support for El Camino del Garda 💙

The El Camino del Garda Team 😎

The photos, batch one 😃

Of the hundreds of photographs that were taken along the way last week, here a a few, with some more to follow later on in the week.

Enjoy.

The El Camino Del Garda Event Management Team 💙

From its inception in 2017 to August 2022 The Little Blue Heroes Foundation has lost 33 Honorary Gardaí.

On our Camino in August 2022 we dedicated a 3km stretch along the Royal Canal, to each Honorary Garda who had passed away.

In the little time since August 2022 to May 2023, 13 more Honorary Gardaí have passed.

With our walk this year, we again dedicated a 3km section of the Grand Canal and Barrow Line to each of our Little Blue Heroes who are no longer with us.

Our walkers were honored that family members joined us on our journey to walk their own section dedicated to their Little Blue Hero.

Each section will never ever be used again for any other Little Blue Hero.

On Tuesday the 23rd of May 2023 we stopped at Lock 21at Ballycommon Co Offaly.

We stopped there to remember our friend and colleague, Sergeant Paul Keegan who passed away very recently after a long illness.

Paul's shoulder number was L21, so it was only fitting to honour him at Lock 21. This beautiful place can now be somewhere to go to remember him.

Paul's sister Jennifer was one of the originals on our first El Camino del Garda and we all passed this point on the 24th of August 2021.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

With the dust settled on our event, we want to thank one of our main supporters for this year.

St. Raphael's Garda Credit Union have The Little Blue Heroes Foundation as their main charity this year and have been supportive of both The Little Blue Heroes Foundation and the El Camino Del Garda.

For all of those who are yet to make a donation to our event you can do that below 👇

https://littleblueheroes.enthuse.com/cf/el-camino-del-garda-2023

Aaaannnnddd we're done 🫡

100km covered in 3 days.

All for the Little Blue Heroes Foundation.

We met a lot of wonderful people on our journey who made our days more bearable.

We will keep you all posted with photos and videos of the last 3 days so stay tuned 😃

Thank you all so far who have donated to us.

The El Camino Del Garda Team 💙

One more day?? Why not!

We have left Tullamore and are on our way 💙

And we go at it again!

Day 2 is under way.

We will keep you all updated

The El Camino Del Garda Team

We are off! We left Rathangan at 9.30am and are powering along. The weather is holding up and everyone is in great spirits.

We will keep everyone updated

Thank you all

The El Camino Del Garda Team

Hi everyone

We are only 3 weeks away from this year's event! El Camino del Garda 2023 will start on the 22nd of May in Rathangan Co Kildare and finish 3 days and 100km later in Shannon Harbour Co. Offaly.

Our participants have been putting the miles on their legs and have been bedding in their shoes. We are all nearly good to go.

If anyone wants to donate to this fantastic event please visit the below link to make a donation.

Thank you all very much

The El Camino del Garda Team 💙

El Camino del Garda 2023 This event is supporting Little Blue Heroes Foundation who provide practical and financial support to families of children who have serious illnesses in Ireland while granting the wish of the children

Hi everyone,

Only a few weeks now until we get going again for El Camino Del Garda 2023. This event will be our third year stamping across the country for the Little Blue Heroes Foundation. The walk will be a 100km trek across some of the most beautiful, picturesque parts of Ireland.

All of our updates will be on Facebook everyday during the walk and if anyone wants to walk a short or long distance with us, please let us know.

The starting point will be Rathangan on the Barrow line on the morning of the 22nd of May, walking to Robertstown on the main Grand Canal, then all the way along the Grand Canal finishing at Shannon Harbour, 100km and three days later on the 24th of May.

It will not be an easy feat, but hey, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it 😎

All donations are very, very welcome and all monies donated go directly to children and families involved with the Little Blue Heroes Foundation.

Thank you all
The El Camino del Garda Team 💙

It was with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Inspector Brian Cullen (Beano). Our deepest and sincere condolences to the Cullen Family, friends and colleagues in An Garda Síochána. Brian was an avid supporter of Little Blue Heroes and we owe him a debt of gratitude for going beyond for our heroes and helping anyway he could. He will be truly missed. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

On a cold February morning, the event management team for El Camino del Garda were in Lowtown carrying out assessments for the walk in May.

The place looked beautiful in the spring sunshine and the cows seemed happy. ☀️ 🐄

The event will pass Lowtown on day 1 of the walk as it is the intersection of the Barrow Navigation and the Grand Canal.

Roll on May 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️.

The El Camino del Garda Team.

We are back!

El Camino del Garda will take place again in 2023. El Camino del Garda 2023 will start on the 22nd of May and will conclude 3 days and 100km later. The walk will start in Rathangan Co. Kildare on the Barrow Navigation, link onto the Grand Canal and conclude in the beautiful Shannon Harbour in Co. Offaly. All participants will use the Canal towpaths and Greenways.

As with the last two years, each participant will take part in this event on either rest days or annual leave and will cover all of their own costs.

This means absolutely every cent of your donation goes directly to our Little Blue Heroes 💙.

To make a donation please visit https://littleblueheroes.enthuse.com/cf/el-camino-del-garda-2023.

Thank you all again for your support this year and the last two years.

The El Camino del Garda Team.

A massive thank you to everyone who supported El Camino Del Garda and Little Blue Heroes this year. Our El Camino del Garda Centenario event has raised €29,500 which is a serious achievement. The initial goal was 10k to be raised, so, like last year, this has been smashed.

More good news is El Camino del Garda will be back next May, for a similar event. More details about this will be released in the new year.

Thank you all for your continued support.

The El Camino del Garda Team 💙

Hi Everyone

With the dust settled on another brilliant year for El Camino del Garda and Little Blue Heroes, the participants, event management team and everyone involved would like to thank the following people and businesses for their donations, dedication and general support to this year's event.

For supplies for the walk we would like to thank the following companies for their donations to the charity.

Musgrave MarketPlace
Leydens Sports Nutrition
Value Centre Letterkenny
Ralph's Eurospar in Dunboyne
Room 8 in Navan
Vending.com
ISHKA Irish Spring Water
And Keogh's Farm Chrisps in Old Town, Co Dublin.

From a brief synopsis of the event we would like to thank the following business and people.

Day 1:

For day 1 we like to thank Brian O'Donoghue from Enfield for facilitating us to use Enfield Harbour for the start of our walk. We would like to thank Hill of Down Post Office, Nanny Quinns Public House, Mary Lynches Public House and Mullingar Pewter for letting us use their facilities along the way.

To the family of Honorary Garda 208 Ruairi O'Donnell who met us at Enfield Harbour, thank you for your support.

Day 2:

For day 2 we would like to thank staff at the Rustic Inn who let us use their facilities and the brilliant Tanglewood Trad Band who entertained the sore feet at the end of the day 😀

We were met by the family of Honorary Garda 127 Jack Lawless at Ballynacargy Harbour. Jack's family gave everyone the motivation to keep going and see out the day. For that, we thank you.

Day 3:

For day 3 we were greated at Lock 39 by the brilliant Fiona Egan Cloughan Farm & Cookery School, with Richmond Cordial and Farmhouse Honey who supplied us with some very VERY tasty scones and coffee. 😋. We shuffled on to 2 Mugs Coffee Trailer who looked after us with more coffee and then onto our penultimate big stop at Leavy's of Foigha Bar. For all of the above, thank you very much.

We would like to thank the Longford Pipe Band for playing us into the finish, with Sugar and Spice then playing for us. We would like to thank the The Richmond Inn for their continued welcome and hospitality.

We were met by the families of Honorary Gardaí Max Wenhanmen HG8 and Rocco Travers HG160 who welcomed everyone over the finish line. For that, thank you so very much. For Honorary Garda 52 Daragh Hopkins who saw us over the line and was there to represent all the Honorary Guards who couldnt make it to see us, thank you very much 👍👍

We would like to thank An Garda Síochána members who helped us along the way with the planning and ex*****on of the event. With a special thank you to A.C Willis and Supt McCarthy who saw us off at the start of the event, with the blessings of Fr Joe. A special thank you to the members of the Garda Operational Support Services.

A special thank you to Mattie Murray from Mattie Murray and Sons Coach Hire. Matty was our coach driver for the 3 days. Mattie deserves a medal for the work he did with our group that week and he is an absolute gentleman. Thank you Mattie.

Finally, a special thank you to Royal Canal Greenway and Royal Canal Amenity Group for their support throughout the event, with a big thank you to Gerry Fitzpatrick.

We would also like to thank Bloomfield House Hotel, Leisure Club & Spa and Waterways Ireland for their support during the event.

The current total raised for the event so far is €27,632. The idonate page will remain open until the end of November, so if you want to make a donation, please do.

The link is www.idonate.ie/GardaCentenario

Thank you all for your support this year.

The El Camino del Garda Team 💙