Fundraising Events - Galway and Cork

In order to fundraise for my two charities, Marymount Hospice and St Vincent de Paul, I will be holding two table quizzes.  If you are living in either Cork or Galway please support these events, bring a friend (or a table-full of friends) and spread the word.  There will be food, prizes and plenty of fun.  Many thanks in advance.


The first Table Quiz will be held in Lohan's Bar & Restaurant in Salthill, Galway, on Friday the 11th May.

Kick-off is at 8pm.

All money raised will go to St Vincent de Paul West.

The second Table Quiz will be held in The South County Bar & Cafe in Douglas, Cork, on Thursday the 24th May.

Start time is again 8pm.

All money raised will go to Marymount Hospice and St Vincent de Paul in Cork.

Swimming for a cause

I will be using my swim to fundraise for two very deserving charities.  I will be running some events in the coming months, but I have also set up webpages where you can donate from the comfort of your computer at home.  So if you enjoy following this blog and want to do some good, then please consider a donation.  Thank you.

Marymount Hospice

St Patrick's Hospital, Marymount is a Cork institution that has helped countless people over the past 140 years.  They provide essential caring services for the elderly, and palliative and hospice care to those with life-threatening illnesses.  They do great work. You can support them here.

Society of St Vincent de Paul

The SVP deal with the poorest and most deserving in the community, on a personal and basic level.  They provide an essential safety net for those who fall through the cracks of welfare, and are a strong voice for equality for those without power or influence.  You can support them here.

Swimming Spots - Blackrock, Galway

Blackrock diving boards

Any time I visit Galway, a trip to the diving boards at Blackrock is pretty much compulsory.  Blackrock is at the end of the famous Salthill Prom, a pedestrian path along the shores of Galway Bay that is very popular with runners, speed-walkers, rollar-bladers, dog-walkers, strollers, and anyone looking for some exercise and fresh air.  The Prom is almost 2km long, with a fabulous view of the Bay, County Clare, and the Aran Islands.  A promenade is completed at Blackrock with a kick of the wall at the end of the pathway, and an about-face for the return journey.  Except, of course, for the swimmers.  These people, usually with a small bag under the armpit and a firm gaze to seaward, take a left turn and head for the diving boards.

Changing area

Blackrock is very well set-up for swimmers.  There are benches at a changing area with hooks on the wall to hold your towel, and a roof over your head that offers protection from the wind and rain.  There are toilets, a fresh-water shower and lots of steps and ladders into the sea.  There is a constant stream of swimmers arriving, changing, swimming, chatting, departing - no matter what the time of day, the tide, or the season.  There is always water for swimming, there are always swimmers for the water.

The Rocks

Achievement is measured by rocks here.  Along the Salthill Prom a number of rocky outcrops separate the different beaches.  A swim to the First Rocks is a round trip of 250m, to the second and back is 450m, to the Fourth Rocks,  Ladies' Beach and back home is about a kilometer.  Of course nobody is counting the distance, just the number of Rocks.

Bird's eye view of the Rocks

 The next time you're in Galway, stroll down to Blackrock and come for a swim..

Around Spike Island Swim

The first of the season's long training sea swims took place today. Danny's father has a boat and has kindly offered its services on a number of long swims for us. First on the list - a circumnavigation of Spike Island, the former naval fortress guarding Cork Harbour, and sometime prison. Danny's father lived on Spike for 23 years, so he had plenty of local knowledge of where he was going.


The day was a beautifully sunny spring day, but with a lazy north wind. The thermometer on the boat gave a constant water temperature reading of 9C for the duration of the swim. Jennifer swam in togs (respect!) but Danny and I were happy to don wetsuits. I think it's fair to say that between the three of us we don't have an awful lot of body fat to spare, so we were happy to see so much of the sun on our way around. The swim was about 5,300m long, swimming in an anti-clockwise direction.


Here's Jen, Danny and me, all looking very contemplative on the way to the start.. Plenty of cold wind here.


Jen at the start. More smiles at this stage, as the north wind is blocked by Great Island behind us. A jump from the boat here, and we're off..


Swimming past the gun position on Spike. We were well matched in pace and stayed together for the whole swim. The public can get tours of the island during the summer and see the extremely large gun which points out to the mouth of the harbour. In the old days they used to tow an old boat or some such target into the harbour and have the navy fire live rounds from the guns to try and sink it - an interesting day for the locals living in the harbour area..


Heading back to Cobh at the end of the swim. We were benefiting from an incoming tide at this stage, and calmer waters were much warmer than cold waves at the back of Spike. We even got a small crowd of people at the finish point. All in all a great swim and another rung in the confidence ladder.

One million metres

Yesterday I swam my millionth metre since training started back in September. That's Cork to Dublin and back. Twice. Like most swimmers I keep a log of how much I am swimming - a very useful document to track how much I've done, and how much I need to do in order to meet the training program. Passing the million metre mark is a nice boost to morale, and it's interesting looking back on the training done so far - all 'money in the bank' for the big swim in July. In general, training effort increased as a monthly coaching review meeting drew closer, and sea swim times expanded and contracted in harmony with the sea temperatures. Sea swimming continued almost every weekend through the winter. Sea swims are a rough estimation in distance, but here are some stats from the past seven months -

o Number of days - 221
o Days in the sea - 42
o Days in the pool - 142
o Metres in the sea - 52,000
o Metres in the pool - 948,000
o Pool lengths swum - 37,920

100 days to go

Today is an interesting day. There are now one hundred days left to the start of my Channel tide of 10-18 July. That's just over 14 weeks. It's unlikely that I will swim on the first day, as I am number 4 on my pilot's list of swimmers for that tide, and you never know what the weather and swim conditions will be like, but at the same time, who knows? It's just as likely that the weather will be perfect, someone may pull out between now and then, or the swimmers on the list in front of me may choose to let me go first. So, I may after all be swimming in 100 days' time - a sobering thought. After 8 months of hard training the goal is in sight, the weather is improving, the sea is getting warmer, and the end of pool swimming and chlorine-filled lungs is within reach. It's all good..