From A to Sea – The Southern Star Sea Swimming Podcast

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 and tribulations at the hands of a vulture fund in recent years have left her seeking the solace of the salty water more than ever.

But she is also actively involved, along with other Inchydoney locals, in research, spear-headed by UCC, to monitor the ongoing coastal erosion at her beloved beach.

As a result of this, the BBC recently shot an episode of its Storyworks series at Inchydoney, featuring Dena, and the story of coastal erosion.

But for now, here’s a little chat our editor Siobhán Cronin had with Dena about her lifelong fascination with saltwater.

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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 Zurich, Alcatraz, Robben Island and, locally, Fastnet to Schull.

But these days Ossi is best known as the founder of the GaddinAbtGarnish swim event that takes place twice each summer, over to or around the stunning island off Glengarriff.

Just ahead of entries opening for the second swim this summer, Ossi came down to Lough Hyne to chat to us about the origins of one of Ireland’s most popular charity swims.

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This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Dylan Mangan.

Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's From A to Sea Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to our previous episodes by clicking here.

For stories like this and more, pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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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 on RTE last year. It revealed never-before-filmed behaviours of our stunning marine creatures, with an original soundtrack performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

Ken has also made a ten-minute movie on West Cork elite swimmer Steve Redmond.

He recently spoke to Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin from his home in Lahinch, Co Clare, not far from where he grew up.

This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Dylan Mangan. Listen below.

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Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's From A to Sea Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to our previous episodes by clicking here.

For stories like this and more, pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

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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 Star editor Siobhán Cronin joined them recently, but before that had a great chat with McKnight in the town's Harbour Hotel.

This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Dylan Mangan.

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Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's From A to Sea Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to our previous episodes by clicking here.

For stories like this and more, pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 erupting at any moment.

On the Saturday morning of her long weekend, Siobhán happened to visit the local beach outside Reykjavik and just by pure good timing and luck, stumbled up on a group of local women enjoying their regular dipping routine.

Siobhán's friend, a Reykjavik local, was able to introduce her and within minutes she found herself togging out for a dip on the magnificent beach overlooking the city.

These women are amazing. They meet three times a week and do a short meditation before the swim, as well as opening what they call their ‘complaints department’ where anyone in the circle of friends can vent their anger or upset about anything at that moment.

That morning swimmer Margaret said she was anxious about the events at the time and everyone shared in that anxiety. But she said she realised that nothing would improve her mood better than a dip with her lady friends in the ocean.

These women don’t wear wetsuits, just neoprene gloves, boots and distinctive yellow hats.

These inspiring women formed the Happier You swimming group during Covid, when their usual hot-spring pools were closed to the public.

Siobhán just had to learn more about these delightful women, living on the island which is our closest northern neighbour, so she invited Tinna, Margaret and Klara on the podcast to share their story.

This episode was produced and presented by Siobhán Cronin, with editing by Dylan Mangan.

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Thanks for listening to The Southern Star's From A to Sea Podcast. Please be sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to our previous episodes by clicking here.

For stories like this and more, pick up a copy of this week's Southern Star or subscribe online via www.southernstar.ie/epaper.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.