BY DECLAN VARLEY
A first-of-its-kind Solidarity-through-swimming initiative has come to beaches across Ireland this summer in a collaboration between the Sanctuary Runners organisation and Swim Ireland.
The ‘Sanctuary Swimmers’ programme was launched in Salthill, Galway on July 17, as well as making a splash in Bray (Wicklow ), Myrtleville (Cork ), Dunmore East (Waterford ) and Dollymount Strand (Dublin ).
The Galway group is made up of locals, refugees and others who have moved to the city from across Ireland and abroad. Expert Swim Ireland coach Kevin and his team are taking the group to the waves and ensuring everyone has a great foundation for future floating. Many of the group are sea swimming for the first time, with everyone overcoming the cold and having lots of fun while learning.
Supporting the Sanctuary Swimmers to make waves is the Galway Sports Partnership, which is working with groups across the city and county to encourage the benefits of getting outdoors and engaging in sports and activity. Links with Galway City Partnership have ensured a wide range of interest from communities across the city to support this unique and exciting local programme.
“We’re so delighted to get our multicultural swimming groups into the water,” explained Ailís McSweeney, the Ireland Lead Manager of the Sanctuary Runners.
Sanctuary Runners is a multi-award-winning not-for-profit organisation which has been using running and walking to bring together locals, asylum seekers and refugees across Ireland since 2018. Key to the work of Sanctuary Runners and Sanctuary Swimmers is creating spaces for communities to come together and engage in shared activities which create bonds and break down barriers.
“This summer’s expansion of the Sanctuary Swimmers’ programme follows a very successful pilot in Cork last summer. We found that as people learned to swim with their Swim Ireland instructor, they built a bond as a group and barriers to communication and integration were overcome.
“Swimming in the open water provides a unique opportunity for people, many of whom have had negative experiences with water, to overcome their fears, support each other, make new friends and learn a vital life skill which will help them enjoy our beautiful country for years to come.”
Transcending fears
Swim Ireland CEO Sarah Keane said the open water can for some, invoke a feeling or fear, for others a sense of adventure. Those emotions are heightened for those who have never been in the sea before. Transcending these is the power of the Sanctuary Swimmers’ initiative and doing it all alongside people we care about and who support us is what makes it truly unique.”
The groups across Ireland will engage in four-week training programmes and each group will contain many different nationalities. Rapelang, originally from Zimbabwe, said ‘I had such a wonderful evening, after a really long day at work! Getting into the sea and learning a new skill was a big challenge but it was so much easier being surrounded by a supportive group of people’.
Graciously supporting the initiative with the provision of wetsuits for people living in Direct Provision are Irish sportswear company PortWest.
Ailís McSweeney said that so much of their work focuses on mental health and well-being and there really is nothing quite like open sea swimming to help improve both.
“It’s not just the swimming but also the time spent chatting on the beach, those much-needed coffees shared as swimmers warm up and the sun goes down, the dancing and joy that envelopes the initiative, the getting to know other local swimmers and that feeling of accomplishment at the end,” she added.
