From A to Sea – The Southern Star Sea Swimming Podcast

CIARÁN Seawright runs the Water School at Pearson’s Bridge near Kealkil – the school his father built to share his love of water with others. The pool is a wonderful amenity for West Cork, teaching both adults and children the wonderful skill of swimming. It is almost unique in its method of water filtration too – using a non-chemical method with UV light that makes the water feel like silk – as C...

The latest edition of the From A to Sea podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at Bandon Town Hall during the recent Banshee Festival. Organised by Marguerite McQuaid, secretary of Creative Bandon, the annual festival enjoys a varied arts programme, marking the start of the Halloween season in West Cork. For this month’s podcast, host and Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin was joined by...

Cork woman Orlagh Patterson recently undertook a 1.8km charity swim around Sandycove Island outside Kinsale to raise funds for the LauraLynn foundation, Ireland’s only children’s hospice. She undertook the swim after the incredible support the charity gave, and continues to give, her family, following the death of her niece’s son, just five days after his birth. But she also undertook it because i...

Hotelier Dena O’Donovan is a businesswoman, musician, entrepreneur and … daily sea swimmer.  Having spent her childhood summers on Inchydoney Beach, the Clonakilty woman has continued her love affair with the popular strand and can be seen there most mornings splashing about in the waves or swimming short distances for health and well-being.  She admits that her much-publicised trials an...

Hairdresser and Clonakilty native Justin Crowley is one of the people behind the iconic Galley Head 10km swim that takes place every year from Red Strand, past the lighthouse to the Warren Strand. Over its six years of operation, it has raised almost a half-million euro for local charities. He joined editor Siobhán Cronin recently to chat about the origins of the hugely popular event and why it’s...

Carmel Collins is a swim coach, award-winning ice swimmer and has just completed the Fastnet swim. Based near Cork city, she swims regularly at Sandycove in Kinsale, and spoke to Siobhán Cronin recently about some of her many swimming achievements. *** This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Tony O'Shaughnessy. Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's From A t...

OSSI Schmidt is a legend in Open Water Swimming – he was involved in starting the Irish Open Masters Swimming Championships, brought the Global Open Water Swimming Conference to Cork in 2013 and became honorary recorder for the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association in 2019. He has swam the Gibraltar Straits, and completed several relay swims including the four-person English Channel, Lake Zuric...

NIALL Kenny is an open water marathon swimmer and a Cork native. But, most importantly, he is the man behind the campaign for a Lido in Cork. He joined Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin recently to explain exactly what a ‘Lido’ is, and why Ireland’s second city so badly needs – and deserves – one. The possible site of the Lido in Cork city.   Kenny says that a possible site could be along K...

KEN O’Sullivan is an Irish underwater cinematographer, film maker, author, diver and swimmer. As well as completing documentary series' for RTÉ, Ken was cameraman on BBC’s Atlantic – Wildest Ocean on Earth series, a CBC Canada documentary on jellyfish and ITV’s Britain’s Whales and Britain’s Sharks documentary. His series on the North Atlantic, The Dark Ocean was hugely popular when it was shown o...

SARAH McKnight is a Londoner who moved to Schull after meeting a Cork man.  She's a swimming teacher, an open water swimming coach and a level one triathlon coach. McKnight started her swim teaching career on board cruise ships, and from there moved to the Cayman Islands, but every Sunday morning she takes a group for a swim off the slipway at the Fastnet Marine Centre in Schull. Southern Sta...

NUALA Moore is a force to be reckoned with – and the sea knows that! Nuala’s earliest memory is of jumping off her father’s fishing boat in Dingle and swimming back to shore. Since then, she’s swum in some of the coldest, remotest and most dangerous waters in the world, from the Bering Strait to the Drake Passage. After years of marathon swimming, Nuala struggled to balance sacrifice and achieveme...

THIS week’s From A To Sea podcast is very close to Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin's heart. Since the 90s she has been visiting Iceland whenever she could get the chance – and whenever her wallet would allow. Her most recent visit was just a few weeks ago, as the earthquakes rattled the region near the main airport and the people of this wonderful land were in fear of a dormant volcano eruptin...

PAMELA Deasy is a force to be reckoned with. The Union Hall woman, who grew up by the sea, is a great ambassador for West Cork.  Through her work with the RNLI, she has touched many families and seen both tragedy and joy at close range.  Her own personal life has brought her into contact with both, too – as she has become a very vocal advocate for cancer research, and is now in recovery...

CORK journalist Ken O’Shea is an executive producer in RTÉ … but he’s also a fairly impressive hobby swimmer. Ken is also the first man to ever swim from the Fastnet Rock to Crookhaven, having always harboured a dream of swimming up the channel between the Alderman Rocks and Rock Island, and walk up the steps at the pier into O’Sullivans for a pint! He did just that, and a lot more, in his relativ...

ONE of the huge benefits of sea swimming for Star editor Siobhán Cronin, aside from the mental and physical boosts, is the opportunity to spend time with friends. On the latest episode of  From A To Sea , Siobhán travels to Killary in Galway to take part in the Gaelforce Great Fjord Swim , accompanied by two of her nearest and dearest, Ballinspittle woman Bláthnaid O'Regan, and Anne Scallan....

ON this week's podcast Star  editor Siobhán Cronin welcomes two swimming coaches, Gráinne Caulfield and Poppy Bament, who join to chat about how the rising popularity of swimming in Ireland, why anyone can take up swimming, and their love for West Cork's water.   Caulfield and Bament are both qualified level 2 open water & pool coaches and run West Cork Swim Coaching , which offers b...

ON this week's podcast, Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin is joined some of the men behind the now world-famous Fastnet swim; swimmers and coaches Nathan Timmons, Steve Redmond, Noel Browne and their skipper Kieran Collins. Over the past few years they have grown the status of the iconic swim to a point where it is now recognised among endurance swimmers across the world as one of the best aroun...

EASKEY Britton is an Irish surfer, author, scientist and activist is the latest guest on From A to Sea,  The Southern Star's podcast series all about the sea, swimming and all things in between. A native of Rossnowlagh in Co Donegal, she was named after a well-known wave off the west coast, so maybe her fate was sealed from the start. In July, Easkey will be appearing at the West Co...

Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin is joined by journalist & author Kathy Donaghy to talk about depression, miscarriage and how swimming has helped heal her.   Donaghy's book, Finding My Wild: How a Move to the Edge Brought Me Home,  tells her story of moving home from Dublin to the Inishowen peninsula with her young family. It is ode to the extraordinary healing powers of imme...

Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin speaks to Melissa Duncan – a 'total immersion' expert and fellow sea swimming fanatic – about a shared love of the sea, building her own swimming pool, and some well-known West Cork names she has coached along the way. Swimming became a lifeline for many during the pandemic, and so many have kept it going, which has left Ireland with a really strong and wonderfu...