A LONG swim on one of the longest days of the year seems an appropriate way to mark midsummer.
However, setting a new record for the first two-way transit of Galway Bay in one day makes it even better, as Andrew Flanagan found at the weekend.
The water polo enthusiast completed his double-crossing from Galway to Clare and back in less than six hours in aid of the RNLI Galway inshore lifeboat.
By doing so, he is also eligible for the English Channel swim, which he hopes to tackle early next month.
“I had to do a six-hour qualifier, and I also wanted to raise funds for the lifeboat, as it provides constant safety cover for us,” Mr Flanagan said yesterday. “It made sense to combine the two.”
Supporting swimmers were Ivan O’Shea from Dublin and Julie Ann Galloway from the US, on the outward leg to Clare, with Sorcha Barry and Susanna Murphy from Dublin and Marleen Renders from Belgium swimming back with him to Salthill, arriving shortly before 5pm.
Very much on dry land, firedancers and drummers celebrated the approaching solstice at the “Splanc!” festival in Brigit’s Garden, near Moycullen.
Performers from Galway’s Alá community group joined the fire procession, with interactive drumming and children’s activities, at an event attended by an estimated 500 people.
Also in Galway, GP and herbalist Dr Dílis Clare threw open her medicinal herb garden yesterday, with proceeds to the Galway Simon Community and NUI Galway herbal medicine research project.