AS a 17-year-old boy Pat Conway was behind the first Lahinch to Liscannor swim in 1972, and he will complete it for the 50th and last time, on August 7.
While different charities benefited from the swim in its early years, for a long time now all of the proceeds have been going to the Burren Chernobyl Project.
That will be the case again this year, and while Pat won’t be directly taking part after 2022, he plans for the event to continue and his favoured charity to continue to benefit.
In the summer of 1972 Pat was a teenage lifeguard in Lahinch, and was one of a small group that organised the first swim, but he could hardly have thought it’d still be going 50 years on.
“It’s something we started as a fun challenge, going from the lifeguard box over to Liscannor. Then we said we might as well do it for charity. It kind of built from there, and it took me over rather than the other way around. Year after year it built up,” he says.
It’s said there is no more depressing phrase in the English language than ‘for the last time’ and Pat says he does feel a little sad that 2022 will be the last time he completes it.
“I am in ways. But you realise what you’re capabilities are. Old age hits everyone, I’m lucky to be as fit as I am, lucky to have done as much swimming as I have. I’ll continue swimming, just won’t be doing anything as strenuous as Lahinch-Liscannor.”
This year his son Damien and daughters Sarah and Claire will swim with him, while a number of other family members will also be there.
As an outdoor event the swim went ahead in 2020 and 2021 despite the pandemic, and almost €14,000 was raised last year, with hopes that an even greater sum will come in this time.
“You can imagine in Belarus that €14,000 goes a long way compared to where it’d go here,” says Pat.
He is full of admiration for the work that Brother Liam O’Meara has done through the Burren Chernobyl Project.
“Brother Liam is hugely enthusiastic and he has unbelievable work put in. He doesn’t deal with any bureaucracy; he’s dealing with the people on the ground, contractors and plumbers, bringing them into the orphanages.
“Any money that’s raised goes straight to where it should, going into the orphanages, the adult facilities, houses for kids with special needs, he’s a wonderful man.”
A native of Lahinch, swimming has been a huge part of Pat’s life.
“At four or five we were just thrown into the water, there was no such thing as swimming lessons that time, you either sank or swam,” he laughs.
“I’ve loved the water, I couldn’t live in a city now at this stage of my life, I wouldn’t be able.”
While still a teenager he began to get interested in long distance swimming and he progressed and progressed to a stage where he almost swam the English Channel.
“I did Liscannor a few times, then I did Doolin to the Aran Islands, then Doolin to the Aran Islands and back with a ten-minute break.
“I got interested in the English Channel, I tried that twice, in 81 and 82, I nearly got there in 82, but I didn’t. It was just one of those things, I was about half a mile out but I couldn’t get in.”
As close as he was to crossing the Channel, there was just no way he could find the last bit of energy to complete it.
“I think I’d hit the second wall! It was a big disappointment, but in other ways this was a great sport to be in, because I met an awful lot of people that I’m still in contact with, and I’m still swimming now.”
A retired psychiatric nurse, he now swims first thing every morning and is such a regular sight in the sea that he earned the nickname ‘The Whale’, around Lahinch.
Even when he was working he’d swim very regularly all year round, and he says that years ago people would look at him as being very eccentric for braving the winter-time Atlantic, but it’s far more common now.
“People would see me swimming in January or February and they’d say, ‘Ah don’t worry about him, he’s a psychiatric nurse’. Now, you have 40 or 50 or even 60 going in.
“There are loads of people in the winter-time swimming now, I think it was Covid that really brought it on, because it was outdoors and people got groups together.
“For years I’d say I was the only one in the winter-time that went for a swim here.”
Wearing a wetsuit would offer some protection on the coldest of days, but he never has.
“I’ve never in my life worn a wet suit. Never in my life. If I had started when I was younger I’d probably wear it all the time, but now I’d have to get used to it,” he laughs.
Pat acknowledges it can be hard to get into the water sometimes, but he always knows he won’t regret it.
“There would be days when you wouldn’t feel like it, but all you have to do is think of the way you feel afterwards. I’m lucky enough that I’m 500 yards from the sea, so I just go in for a swim in the winter-time and straight home for a hot shower and a shave and I’m ready for the day.”
There are great mental benefits from the swimming, he finds.
“Of course there are, it clears the mind completely. Sport in general is good for your mental state.”
When he was doing the really long distances, being able for the mental challenge of hours and hours of repetitive physical effort was very important.
“When you’re doing three or four hours at a time you have to train your mind not to get completely bored, because if you got bored you’d just go in out of it.
“If you could keep the mind active you’d keep going, that’s what I found in all the long distance swimming that I did. Mind over matter; the physical side of it you’d get used to.”
There was great craic around some of the long distance swims also.
“Doolin to Aran and back was a great day. There was about 20 in a boat and they were in party mode. When I got across to Aran I was very tired, I didn’t even know if I’d go back in the water.
“There was a small currach and a big boat and the ones in the big boat went to a local hostelry for a while and the currach came back with me.
“I started swimming better than ever about a mile out from Aran on the way back to Doolin and I arrived back in Doolin around 7.30 or 8pm, it was dark and the people who were on the big boat were in party mode still.
“I remember Dolly O’Connor, from O’Connor’s pub, she had a bath ready for me in Doolin and an Irish coffee at the edge of the bath.
“We came back to Lahinch and there was a huge night here.”
These days Lahinch to Liscannor takes him about 80-90 minutes, quite a bit longer than it once did, and he made a decision that if he could do it for a 50th time he’d call it a day.
“For the last couple of years I found it hard, so I made a bargain with the man above that if he got me as far as 50 I’d stop, so I’m going to keep my side of it, anyway, I’m not going to chance 51 in case something would happen.
“I’d be delighted if I do the 50th and leave it at that, but with the proviso that I will keep the swim going every year for Burren Chernobyl.”
North Clare has always been very supportive of the event.
“I go around to Lahinch, Liscannor, Ennistymon, I go around to every business person, and to an awful lot of the houses. They realise when I’m coming what it’s for, and they’re so decent it’s unreal. There has been huge support.”
While he will be on a boat or on the shore from next year on, he says there are a new generation coming who are very enthusiastic about it.
“There are a lot of fit youngsters around and a lot of them in the last number of years have got an interest in it and do it year after year. They’re great, they raise a lot of money as well.”
Anyone who would like to take part in the swim on August 7 or who would like to offer support can call Pat on 087 7562579.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.