'Mountmellick Mermaid' Successfully Completes North Channel Swim

Friday, 1 July 2022 08:55

They're the 42nd team ever to complete the notoriously difficult swim.

The 'Mountmellick Mermaid' has completed yet another swimming challenge.

Joan Fennelly swam the North Channel, from Northern Ireland to Scotland, as part of a relay, in 14 hours and 46 minutes.

Having learnt to swim in Mountmeliick's Owenass River, she's now based in the UK and is a member of the swim team 'The Henley Mermaids'.

She completed this challenge along with one of her swim team mates and two friends from Exmouth in Devon (aka The Ex-men).

It started shortly after 5.30am, when the first swimmer, Laura Reineke had to swim from their boat to dry land, on the shore of Donaghadee.

In strict one hour rotations, each relay member swam, until team member Max Norman made it to the cliff edge about half a mile north of Port Patrick in Scotland.

The North Channel is a notoriously difficult challenge, as its waters are renowned for being cold, with strong currents, and lots of nasty jellyfish, namely Lions Mane jellyfish, which can be toxic.

The team opted to swim earlier in the season, as the colder the water, the fewer the jellyfish.

Another swim team known as 'Bits Missing' also attempted the North Channel on the same day and were successful - they are the first ever disabled team to make it and all were missing one limb. The two teams are pictured above, including Laois lady Joan, raising a celebratory fist in the air.

They were blessed with calm waters on the day, albeit with the water temperature being around 11 degrees. The big challenge was for team members to warm up after swims, refuel and rest.

Because of the challenges of the North Channel swim, it is classed as one of the Oceans Seven swims, as well as one of the Tripple Crown swims, with The English Channel being another one, which Joan successfully completed as part of a relay swim with The Henley Mermaids in July 2020.

They're the 42nd team to ever swim the North Channel and also fulfilled the tradition of signing a section of wall at the Pier 36 pub in Donaghadee Harbour.

Joan and The Henley Mermaid’s sights are firmly set on hopefully re-attempting to swim the Bristol Channel - this is currently timetabled for late July, but at the mercy of tide and weather conditions aligning.

This year, The Henley Mermaids are raising awareness around pollution of waterways - rivers, lakes, oceans - both the visible pollution such as plastic and litter, but also sewage and pesticides.

To this end, their chosen charity is Surfers Against Sewage and are inviting donations here.