The ripple effect
A new film follows a group of male synchronised swimmers. John Meagher talks to athlete Ronan Daly about how he became involved in the sport
When you think of synchronised swimming — that’s if this most arcane of pool disciplines ever crosses your mind — you’ll likely think of toned young women bearing full make-up and rictus smiles throwing bizarre choreographed shapes to classical music.
You’re almost certainly not going to think of a bunch of middle aged men — none of whom boasts the sort of body to appeal to the makers (or viewers) of Love Island —so desperate to stay afloat they can barely muster a smile.
That’s the premise of a new film, British comedy Swimming with Men: rather than getting their kicks from five-a-side football or pints of beer in their local, this collection of misfits bond by learning synchronised swimming — and by braving the pool-side sniggers. And yet, somehow, these very ordinary men go on and nab a medal at a prestigious international tournament for male practitioners of the discipline.
It sounds like the stuff of pure fantasy, but the film was, in fact, inspired by a bunch of Swedish men who fancied partaking in one of the few sports that’s almost entirely a female domain. They got good — so good, in fact, that they triumphed at an overseas games, a bit like the one featured in the film.
What the writers of the film hadn’t originally realised was that in London — where it is set — there was a group of middle-aged male swimmers keen to crush the reverse sexism of synchronised swimming and make their own waves in the pool.
One of those swimmers was Ronan Daly, an Englishman with Irish parents, and he ended up playing a crucial part in
Swimming with Men. “They were looking for men who had done synchronised swimming to help with some of the moves,” he says, speaking to the Irish
Independent in Dublin. “Then they needed someone to be a body double and then they just said ‘Would you have time to spare to be in the film?’.”
And that’s how Daly — who divides his time between a house he bought in Longford and the London home he shares with partner Charles — wound up in what could well be one of the sleeper hits of the summer.
“It was such a great experience to be part of it,” he says, “and I really hope it reaches a big audience. It’s funny and it also has something to say about that middle-age period for men when they’re asking questions of themselves and how their lives are going.”
He got to work with an impressive cast, including comic actor Rob Brydon — the film’s star — Jim Carter, who played the gruff butler, Carson, in Downtown Abbey and Rupert Graves, familiar as Inspector Lestrade in the BBC’s rebooted Sherlock.
Their coach is played by Charlotte Riley, celebrated for her turn in Peaky
Blinders, and it’s a role she plays with relish.
Not all were gifted swimmers when practice began but Daly (50) says they were quick learners. “Maybe it’s that thing about being an actor,” he says.
“You pick up instruction very quickly. Ollie [director Oliver Parker] would suggest one way to say dialogue and they’d do it perfectly and then for the next scene, he’d ask them to try something subtly different and they’d be able to nail that too.”
He says he hopes the film will encourage other men to try traditionally female pursuits like synchronised swimming, but suggests its unlikely there will be an explosion of popularity in this speciality water sport irrespective of the success enjoyed by the film.
“It requires a group of people for a start,” he says. “Often swimming is a solitary pursuit and people enjoy that aspect of it. But by
My father’s passion was cars and so he’s responsible for the fact that it’s mine too. He was a veterinary surgeon and he’s also a freelance motoring correspondent, which meant test driving cars for manufacturers. When we were growing up in Bruff, Co Limerick, we’d would be driving off-road as we were lucky enough to live on a farm – although I’m not sure our neighbours enjoyed listening to us. I have three brothers and we were all into cars.
When I was 16 I built my first rally car, a Ford Escort Mark II to compete in autocross — that’s the entry level for rallying. I was 17 when I started competing. I started in autocross — these are sprinttype events where you are typically in a disused quarry driving on a gravel surface. You learn to get car control racing on gravel. You’re not racing against other cars at the same time, it’s more like a time trial — you’re trying to get a good time against the clock.
After that I started competing in forestry stage rallying. This is racing on forest roads with timed sections or stages which were up to 16 miles in length. There’s typically six to eight stages in a day.
In 2003 I did the National Forestry Rally Championship, becoming the ‘Best Rookie’ and I was nominated for the Young Driver of the Year. In 2006 I competed in a World Rally Championship in New Zealand — that’s the highest level you can go in rallying, the pinnacle of the sport. The guys who won that race had cars that cost half a million euro. I didn’t have that kind of money or the backing to go all the way, but I did get to experience it.
I started working in race schools around the world teaching people to drive cars. I spent a few years doing that in New Zealand and Australia and then I came back to Ireland and worked in Rally School Ireland in Monaghan for a couple of years.
My cousin Greg had started rallying at an early age like me, but he chose to navigate drivers rather than drive. In 2009 he was competing in the British Rally Championship — a very prestigious championship. Greg was the navigator for a young driver called Keith Cronin from Cork, who became the second Irishman to win the event. My wife Catherine was part of Keith’s fundraising team and after they won the British Championship, I met her out celebrating.
For me it was easy — my family was all into rallying — but for Catherine she had to do it all herself. She decided this was something she wanted to do after watching the Fastnet tarmac rally which passed her door in West Cork.
She started driving and racing her own car with her younger sister Laurna navigating. There are not many female crews rallying. It takes a lot of determination to race the boys, particularly if your family has no background in the sport. I’manR&D engineer with a medical devices company called Stryker Neurovascular in Cork. Catherine teaches science in Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí secondary school in Bantry. When I met Catherine she encouraged me to go back rallying — to be honest I didn’t need a whole lot of persuading. We teamed up and decided to do some events outside the country.
In 2012 we went to Barbados. We shipped our Escort Mark II rally car out on a banana boat to the Caribbean island. Catherine had won €2,000 in the Lottery and that’s what we used to ship the car. They’re crazy out there so we fitted right in. We raced and came third in our group.
After the event we went swimming with turtles and I asked Catherine to marry me. Our plan was to go away and get married so we headed off to Finland to the home of Santa Claus — to a town called Rovaniemi. We got married in an ice church.
There was a rally on in Finland — the Arctic Rally — the next week. It’s really extreme racing on ice and snow which required special tyres to allow the car to grip the snowy and icy roads. If you slide off the roads, you could die from the cold as the temperature can drop below -30C.
It was compulsory to carry additional heavy winter overalls to wear if you had a break down or crashed. Half the rally ran at night as there’s not much daylight in winter in the Arctic. I believe we were the first Irish crew to finish it.
Catherine was my navigator — she’s essentially my eyes coming
We shipped our Escort Mark II rally car out on a banana boat to the Caribbean Island. After the event I asked Catherine to marry me
around every bend. You have to really understand each other well. She’s a really talented navigator
We’ve done a lot of travelling. We ask ourselves can we go with our sport and experience what a place is like as well. In 2016 we rallied in the Gorman Ridge Rally in California, 80 miles north of Los Angeles. We finished on the podium.
Our most recent trip was to Kenya on St Patrick’s weekend where we did the Safari Rally. It’s one of the most famous rallies in the world and we were the first Irish crew to compete in it. It was a challenge due to the rough roads and water pools, and there were lots of animals like zebra and buffalo to avoid. We were also told not stray away from our car at service checks as there were resident lions about.
I have an adventurous mindset and Catherine is up for the challenge as well. When you’re driving you have a lot of safety gear. Driving in a race car is different to an ordinary car. When you’re in a race car you have a harness on you and you’re wearing fire-proof gear. I think when you start having that fear of crashing, you stop.
Rallying is infectious but it’s expensive and you have to save up to do events. My other big hobbies are motor biking and mountain biking.
Mountain biking gives a similar adrenaline rush as rallying, with the added bonus of getting fit. My first date with Catherine was mountain biking in the Ballyhoura on the Cork/Limerick border. We’re both so passionate about rallying — I’m a lucky man.