Critical - Emergency Medical Response

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Critical - Emergency Medical Response

Ireland’s Leading Volunteer Emergency Medical Response Charity CRITICAL is the largest Volunteer Emergency Medical Response charity in Ireland.

CRITICAL volunteers provide pre-hospital emergency care to critically ill and injured patients in rural and urban areas across the country. Initially founded in 2009 as Irish Community Rapid Response, CRITICAL now has a growing network of volunteer responders operating in 20 counties in cities, towns, and villages. With over 160 medical volunteers, including emergency medical technicians (EMTs), paramedics, consultants and other qualified medical professionals, CRITICAL works in partnership with the National Ambulance Service (NAS) to respond to life-threatening emergencies. CRITICAL envisions an Ireland where communities and those living in it have equal opportunity to receive a rapid medical response in the event of a medical emergency, injury, accident, or trauma, no matter the location. We have teams of experienced Volunteer Emergency Medical Doctors, Medical Responders, and Community Responders in communities all over Ireland, with our medical response network steadily growing. We supply emergency medical response vehicles in key areas to experienced advanced or critical care doctors. These vehicles are kitted out with specialist medical equipment including defibrillators, chest compression systems and suction units as well as advanced medical and trauma kits. This allows our volunteer doctors to perform complex and often lifesaving medical procedures, wherever and whenever they’re called upon. We have ambitious plans to further expand this network. Our ground teams responded to more than 1,800 incidents over the last three years alone, working in partnership with the emergency services to give people the very best chance of survival when they find themselves seriously ill or injured. We fundraise to kit out our volunteers so they can continue their life saving work. It costs an average of €25,000 to establish an Advanced level Volunteer Doctor in the community and €120,000 to put a new Critical Care response vehicle on the road. Each lifesaving emergency backpack that we give to a responder in a community like yours costs and average of €1,500 to supply. With your help we will be able to expand this service to more locations across Ireland. Irish Community Rapid Response CLG T/A CRITICAL | Registered Charity No (RCN): 20070762

19/11/2025

It’s the question we all ask every year...

What do you get for the person who already has everything? 🎁

Our “You Didn’t Need More Stuff Anyway” Gift Certificate!

Every purchase is a direct donation supporting CRITICAL’s mission to empower communities to save lives.

Our Christmas Shop is now open! ✨
Shop now at www.criticalcharity.ie/critical-christmas-shop/

17/11/2025

🎧 Listen back to Friday’s interview on Newstalk, where CRITICAL CEO David Tighe joined Anna Daly (sitting in for Andrea Gilligan) to talk about CRITICAL’s work and answer listeners’ questions on emergency response and Ireland’s emergency services.

This Christmas you can support our mission to empower communities to save lives by shopping with purpose. All funds from our Christmas Shop are direct donations that help us continue our lifesaving work.

Shop now on https://criticalcharity.ie/critical-christmas-shop/

12/11/2025

This week marked another important step in supporting our volunteers: we’ve launched our own in-house CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management) Awareness Training for CRITICAL responders.

CISM plays a key role in helping our teams recognise and understand the effects that responding to 999/112 emergency calls can have. Our focus is to ensure every responder knows that support is always available, and that it’s okay to reach out if an incident affects you.

We’re proud to have a clear signposted support service in place for our members, and we’ll be sharing details soon about an additional new service designed to further help our responders.

A big thank you to Cian, who delivered the first session Monday evening with Critical CFR Deansgrange, and who will now bring this vital training to our CFR groups nationwide.

Together, we look after each other. Both on scene and beyond, to empower communities to save lives.

11/11/2025

It’s been a busy day at Head Office as we pack up Christmas orders! 🎁

Have you visited our Christmas Shop yet? Every purchase makes a difference.

All proceeds go directly towards empowering communities and saving lives.

Shop with purpose this festive season and give the gift of hope. ❤️

Visit www.criticalcharity.ie/critical-christmas-shop

10/11/2025

❤️ Making a Difference in Every Heartbeat - Critical CFR Deansgrange

Saturday last was a great example of how much impact our Community First Responders have in their communities.

At Deansgrange, two important courses are taking place side by side.

👉 In one room, members of the public are taking part in Hands for Life, learning how to recognise the signs of cardiac arrest and perform early, effective CPR - a simple skill that can double or even triple someone’s chance of survival.

👉 In the other, Deansgrange CFR responders are taking their own training to the next level, progressing to Community First Responder Advanced. This means they’ll now be able to assist with airway management during a cardiac arrest, giving patients the best possible chance before an ambulance arrives.

No matter the level of training, good quality CPR remains the foundation of saving a life.

A huge well done to everyone involved - both the public who are learning and the volunteers who continue to raise the standard of emergency response in their community. 👏❤️

National Ambulance Service (NAS)
fans

07/11/2025

Our Christmas Shop is officially open on our website! 🎁

This festive season you can spread holiday cheer and help save lives ❤️

Browse our range of Christmas Cards (available in packs of 4, 6 or 10) or choose a personalised Animated eCard for a special digital touch. You’ll also find CRITICAL branded socks and our “You Did Not Need More Stuff Anyway” Donation Certificate!

Every purchase from our Christmas Shop is a direct donation supporting our mission to empower communities to save lives.

Shop now on www.criticalcharity.ie/critical-christmas-shop/

04/11/2025

Thanks you to everyone who took part and donated today at our AEDventure hunt!!

From all our volunteer’s we truly appreciate the support.

Every euro helps support our mission to provide this volunteer-based emergency medical response that provides immediate help in the first vital minutes of a life-threatening emergency in Macroom and surrounding areas !

Have a fundraising idea ?? We’d love to hear from you!!

Critical - Emergency Medical Response

31/10/2025

This Sunday something AEDventurous is happening at the Castle Hotel in Macroom... 👻

Follow the clues, discover hidden surprises near life-saving defibrillators, and enjoy an adventure of frights, fun, and community spirit.

Perfect for families, friends, and little adventurers alike — all while raising funds to support your local CRITICAL Community First Responders!

You can register for tickets now on
https://register.enthuse.com/ps/event/HalloweenAEDventureHunt or on the day at our pop up stand in the Castle Hotel between 10-4pm.

30/10/2025

This Saturday come along to Killavullen Community Hall in Cork for a fundraiser in support of CRITICAL. Enjoy some refreshments, great company and the chance to win fantastic raffle prizes! ☕🎁

This special event is organised by Jim and Hilary O’Kelly. Earlier this year, Jim was a beneficiary of CRITICAL's work and you can read his inspiring story on our website.

All proceeds will go directly to CRITICAL, helping to support life-saving emergency responders in communities across Ireland.

If you’re in the area we’d love to see you there!

You can also donate directly here on https://criticalcharity.enthuse.com/cf/killavullen-community-evening-cafe

28/10/2025

CRITICAL CHARITY HONOURED BY AMERICAN CHAMBER FOR LIFE-SAVING COMMUNITY IMPACT

We were delighted to be recognised by the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland and have been named the winner of the 2025 Mid-West Region Cairdeas Award.

The award was accepted by David Tighe, CEO of CRITICAL and Jim O’Kelly from Killavullen in North Cork who told attendees that CRITICAL is the reason he is alive today. He suffered a heart attack on Easter Sunday and Edward Walsh, a volunteer responder with the charity, was one of the first people at the scene.

Edward’s emergency rapid response vehicle is equipped with an ECG Monitor enabling him to determine quickly how serious Jim’s condition was and alert ambulance control. It meant when the ambulance arrived, they were able to bring Jim immediately from his home to the Cath Lab at Cork University Hospital to have a stent placed to open the blocked artery in his heart.

Read the full story on our website on https://criticalcharity.ie/critical-charity-honoured-by-american-chamber-for-life-saving-community-impact/

24/10/2025

We are deeply honoured to have been chosen by Team Hannah, who climbed Croagh Patrick in memory of Hannah Frawley and raised an incredible €24,500 for CRITICAL.

Thank you for being such an inspiring force for good. We are forever grateful for the incredible impact you’ve made ❤️

It’s the support from communities like yours that fuels our mission.

23/10/2025

This day last week was ❤️

A huge thank you to our amazing volunteers from Critical CFR - Carrick on Suir for providing CPR demonstrations, and to everyone who stopped by to say hello, take part or make a donation.

We’re so grateful for your support and for your enthusiasm to learn lifesaving skills! 🙌

Address

Croom Primary Care Centre
Croom
V35XT25

Telephone

+353214190999

Website

https://www.criticalcharity.ie/

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Our Story

Irish Community Rapid Response - By Land and Air was established in 2008 to deliver professional pre hospital care directly to the site of medical emergencies throughout Ireland. Our volunteer doctors have made a significant difference while working in association with the National Ambulance Service (NAS) when responding to 999/112 emergency calls. Building on our experience and success we launced Ireland's first charity Air Ambulance/ Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) in July 2019. In our first year of service we responded to over 520 taskings through the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC). The NEOC deploys the Air Ambulance as an asset of the NAS, in response to 999/112 calls.

Based out of Rathcool in North Cork, the Irish Community Air Ambulance provides a vital service to people experiencing time critical life threatening emergencies, bringing an Advanced Paramedic to them within minutes of the inital call to 999/112.

The main call outs include Cardiac Arrest, Road Traffic Incidents, Stroke, Fall from Height, Farm and Equestrian related injuries.

As a charity, we rely on public donations to fund the costs of keeping the helicopter in the air.