At the MCI’s Annual General Meeting 2009 which took place on Saturday 21 February 2009 in Knockree Youth Hostel a new name for the MCI was voted in by the members – Mountaineering Ireland.

Work has been going on behind the scenes for some time on the branding of the organisation.  It was felt that the word “Council” was too stuffy and the Council structure was no longer part of the organisation. 

As part of our Strategic Development Plan 2009 - 2013 consultation process it was felt by members that a more inclusive name would be better to engage new members and would better reflect the sport and activity of Mountaineering.

Mountaineering is the sport, activity or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing mountains. We work for and represent those involved in hill walking, climbing, bouldering, and alpinism.  Mountaineering Ireland is a 32 county organisation which has a membership of in excess of 9,650 individual members and club members in over 130 clubs.

Mountaineering Ireland is the National Governing Body for Mountaineering as is recongised as such by the Irish Sports Council, Sport Northern Ireland, UIAA – The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation and the IFSC – International Federation of Sport Climbing.

While the name change comes into effect immediately, primarily you will see the new identify first on our web site and in our e-zine.  It may take some time before you see our new identify on our paper based resources as we will run down our stocks before introducing any new materials in order to keep our costs in the changeover as low as possible.