Charlie Magill from Glenarm is currently undertaking a 364 miles walk from Tragumna Bay, Skibbereen, on the south coast of Cork back to his home village of Glenarm, to highlight the right for a child to have contact with both safe biological parents, and the right for parents to have contact with their children.
52 year old Charlie, who is a member of the Shane O’Neill’s Hurling Club, decided to take on this mammoth project after witnessing someone close to him going through the pain of having to fight to see their children. Charlie told the Saffron Gael that he was undertaking the project to highlight parental alienation and its effect on the mental health of those going through it.
“This is the loss of contact between one parent and their children following parental separation with one parent intentionally interfering and denying access to the other parent.
“Having watched someone go through the experience of losing contact with their children, I have decided to bring this sensitive topic across the island of Ireland.
“I watched someone close to me go through the emotional, torture of being an alienated parent, which had a detrimental effect on both them and their extended family.
“I feel it’s wrong that a parent feels they have the right to keep children away from the other parent. The system doesn’t do enough in this area and that needs to change.”
Since starting to promote his upcoming challenge, Charlie has been approached by many parents throughout Ireland, going through a similar experience.
“Unfortunately, these parents are not in a position to highlight this problem themselves, either they don’t have the strength to, or following advice from their legal team, they are told it would further harm their legal case to have contact with their children.
“Before starting to organise the walk, I hadn’t realised just how massive this issue is,” he added.
Charlie hopes that by doing this walk he can start to highlight this important issue and has sent out an invitation to anyone directly affected by this problem to join him on the walk during his 364 mile journey, which is a marathon a day for 14 days.
The proceeds from Charlie’s walk will go to two different charities, La Dolce Vita and Turning Point NI, which were chosen because of their commitment to supporting people experiencing parental alienation and those battling poor mental health.
Charlie began his journey on Saturday morning at Tragumna beach Co Cork and ended the day in Shanlaragh before spending the night in the grounds of Sam Maguire Park at nearby Dunmanway
Day 2 started at Shanlaragh and ended at Donoughmore where they welcomed by members of the local Donoughmore GAC
Day 3 – Monday 25th July began at Donoughmore and ended in Kildorrery where the set up camp for the night at Kildorrery GAC
Tomorrow (Tuesday they set off from Kildorrery on their 26 mile journey to Tipperary Town where they will stay at Arravale Rovers GAC
https://www.gofundme.com/f/parental-alienation-marathon-walk