Swimming to help
The Battle of Carlingford Lough lived up to its name when swimmers Harry Jordan and John Savage junior took on the challenge of swimming from Omeath to Carlingford last Friday in aid of SOSAD.
The pair, who are members of the Carlingford Swimmers group of open water swimmers, found that conditions were much more difficult than they had anticipated but it didn’t deter them from finishing their task.
‘We left Omeath at 9am to what looked an ebbing tide, (that is where the tide is flowing in your favour) and which should not have been there as we were 2 hours before High Tide, after 500m the tide became an incoming one, meaning that every stroke was going to have to fought for,’ says Harry. John took a shoreline route, whilst Harry, thinking that he could find a current, went wide. Their safety boat stayed between the two as they swam up to 300m apart.
Neither of them stopped en route even though they encountered a couple of jellyfish, through fortunately not Lion’s Manes.
As they approached Carlingford, a trawler who obviously spotted them, went left then right throwing them both into confusion.
‘Our our Graham Mc Nally approached it, and asked them to stop, and ended up getting a £40.00 donation,’ says Harry.
‘500m from home we could see a crowd on the pier which gave an impetus to speed up,’ he recalls. ‘Whilst John and I had at this stage swam almost 8km (5 miles) and for all of the journey were up to 400m apart, we both landed at the same time and exited hand in hand.’
With donations still coming in, they have received over matched. The numbers were 12, 13, 24 and 25. There was one ‘match three’ winner, Francis Lafferty, Caraban, c/o online, who won the Louth GAA House Draw ticket. The jackpot for this week’s draw is €11,800.
There were a few changes to the normal format and all Covid-19 regulations and guidelines were followed. The Lotto can be dropped into the club kitchen hatch from 8.30pm where a sanitation station will be available. There are also designated collectors and they will be in touch to arrange collections.
Our weekly lotto is vital to the everyday running of the club. The top prize is now a whopping €11,800, and remember if you are not in you can’t win! Tickets can be bought in local shops and from committee members. It’s also available through direct debit or online (see the link below). Tickets are €2 each or 3 for €5. To save on contacting people
€2700 so far.
‘We have got donations as far away as USA, the page is closing Wednesday evening so there is still time for readers to donate,’ says Harry.
The pair are delighted that they ensured that the annual Battle of Carlingford Lough swims lives, and they have been able to raise money to help SOSAD.
SOSAD is a front-line service who work towards suicide awareness and prevention. They work on the basis of suicide prevention through early intervention, offering free counselling, a 24-hour helpline and support to those who are suicidal, depressed, anxious or bereaved by suicide. SOSAD also work to promote emotional resilience in the community and John notes that swimming has been shown to offer enormous benefit.
Above, Fina and Teagan McDonnell at the hit the wall swim challenge in aid of Sosad held in Carlingford. Right, John Savage taking part in the hit the wall swim challenge in aid of Sosad held in Carlingford. Photos: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics too much why not pay your lotto bi-weekly or monthly online.
The Cooley Kickhams Lotto draw resumed on Monday night last, June 15, after a break since March 16 due to the pandemic.
There was a jackpot of €4,400 on offer but the numbers drawn,13, 14, 15 and 21 were not matched. There was one match three winner, The Donnelly Girls, c/o Phelim Rice, and their prize was a €100 ticket for the Louth GAA House draw. The jackpot for this week’s draw rises to €4,600.
The Club Lotto is not only a vital source of income for the Club but it will be our only source of income. While many of our running costs have reduced, we still have ongoing expenses to pay such as our mortgage, insurance etc.
In the current circumstances and adhering to HSE, Government and GAA guidelines, for the foreseeable future we will not be making tickets available in local shops or pubs and our sellers will not be calling to houses weekly. We would like to encourage as many people as possible to sign up to play our lotto draw online. This will help us to considerably reduce the handling of paper tickets and cash by our lotto sellers and buyers.