Darkness Into Light 2025 launched at UCC event

More than 51,000 counselling hours and 100,000 helpline calls and texts were supported by funds raised during the 2024 Darkness Into Light sunrise walks, it was disclosed as details of the 2025 event were announced at the Cork launch this week in UCC.

Darkness Into Light events will be held in 29 venues across Cork city and county, including on Cork’s northside and southside, in the early hours of Saturday, May 10.

Lord Mayor Dan Boyle expressed confidence that there would once again be massive participation in the event, which is in its fifteenth year in Cork and provides almost 90% of the funding required by the organising charity, Pieta, across Cork city and county.

“Goodness and light are needed in people’s lives — with so much strife going on at home and globally — and this is even more true of those who need the services of Pieta,” he said.

The chairperson of the Cork city organising committee, Majella Cremin, said that Pieta was heavily reliant on the generosity of people to sustain its free services nationally, including a counselling service in Shankiel in Cork city and the Dunmanway outreach service.