Women on crest of a wave with daily swim for 35 years

Lifestyle – A group of women who began taking a daily dip in the Atlantic more than three decades ago have formed firm friendships as a result of year-round swimming, sharing each other’s joys and sorrows and being there for each other through thick and thin. They tell DARA BRADLEY about its benefits and how they welcome the new people who’ve taken to the beaches during Covid-19.

When a series of swimming lessons given by Sr Noelle, a Mercy Sister, finished at Leisureland one summer many moons ago, a group of women on the course decided they’d go sea swimming the following week at Ladies’ Beach.

That was 35 years ago this year – and the group is still going strong, swimming daily in Galway Bay at Salthill.

In the beginning there were about 15 of them, who swam every Wednesday. Then they upped it to three times a week, and now it’s a daily endeavour for a hard-core group of a dozen women who are affectionately known as the Blackrock Lady Swimmers or BLS for short.

The twelve are Alice Naughton, Alice Parsons, Francis Daly, Mary Nee, Mary Wade, Muriel Silke, Monica Sweeney, Pauline Henry, Anne Grete Gormley, Maureen Farrell, Patsy Callanan and Pamela O’Donovan.

“Some of us had never been to the beach and certainly never swam at the beach,” recalled Pamela O’Donovan, who hails originally from landlocked Boyle in County Roscommon but has lived in Maunsell’s Road for 50 years.

“It was an off-shoot of swimming classes we were doing with Sister Noelle. From there we got a love of the sea. Some of us were only beginner swimmers and some were quite good swimmers. Some of our group have gone on to get teaching certificates in swimming; they’re qualified and teach swimming in Leisureland,” she said.

Initially, the women used to stop sea swimming for the year in October. But one year, possibly 1990, a ‘brave heart’ among them suggested a Christmas swim – and 2020 marks their 30th dip on December 25.

“I remember the first Christmas we were down there, we had our hats on, and musician Benny O’Connor, who plays melodeon, serenaded us down to the tower!

“We were only one of a few groups there on Christmas Day that time and now you can hardly make your way down to the tower, it’s become so popular,” Pamela said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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