BIG INTERVIEW: 'I cannot let the team down,' says Tipp man who completed North Channel swim

Tipperary man Declan Bradshaw was one of six Irish sea swimmers to become the first to complete the North Channel swim from Ireland to Scotland in winter.

The team, who go by the name Team Walrus, met during lockdown and trained for months before taking on the swim, which is considered the toughest of the seven ocean sea swims.

Declan is a native of Tipperary Town and is son of John and Maura Bradshaw.

He now lives in Dublin.

I made contact with Declan after the channel swim as I wanted to learn more about the achievement and about his love of swimming.

I began by asking him about this and as to where he learned how to swim.

“I certainly inherited my Dad’s love of the water and a big influence in my life was the pool and the staff in the Seán Treacy Swimming Pool in Tipperary Town. I lived about 300m from the front door and I spent a lot of my childhood there with my family and friends. My Dad (who was instrumental in getting the pool built in the early 70s) used to bring the family swimming weekly and Peter Lyons, and the late Jim Corby and Mrs Hayes taught me to swim and were always very welcoming.

“The Marlin swimming club run by the Kirbys kept me interested through the teenage years and I swam competitively up until the age of 16. That created a love of the water that I never forgot and it remains with me to this day.”

Declan lived abroad for a few years and started swimming in open water events in the Seattle area, including triathlons, but never enjoyed the running or cycling. He says that Covid was the real kickstarter for him to begin cold water swimming in Ireland.

“When the pools closed I had to get my swims in and I met a bunch of like-minded swimmers (of all abilities) and joined the Walrus challenge, which promotes safe open water/cold water swimming in Dublin’s 40ft, and Killiney beach. A subset of that group started to really expand our exploits, swimming further distances and really stretching our abilities. A small group formed under Ger Kennedy - a world-renowned ice swimmer, and he picked the crew to do this challenge.”

The swim was done through a relay system of six swimmers including Declan and every team member prepared for three hours in the water. However, they each ended up doing two, except for team leader Ger Kennedy who swam two hours and 51 minutes. Declan says that they had to be mentally and physically prepared for the challenge.

“We trained a lot and were prepared physically for it, mentally it was a real challenge and I would say that without the support we had it would have been impossible. Swimming fitness was obviously a huge factor, so five to six sessions of distance sea swimming per week was not uncommon.

“We also had to train for ‘re-immersion’, i.e., getting back into very cold water in a short timeframe to repeat swims.”

Declan says that they were all confident that they could do the swim, but that jumping in 10km off shore brings its own challenges.

“To be honest, top of my mind was that I cannot let the team down and then it was just getting focused on stroke/rhythm, pushing all concerns of cold aside and working with the sea state to ensure speed. You actually need help getting out as you are so cold. You’re talking of between 8.6 and 9 degrees water temperature, the air temperature was around six and seven but with the wind chill we reckon it was about a three. It was an amazing feeling to be part of such an exceptional team and to complete a once in a lifetime experience.

“We also felt very relieved that we completed the swim successfully.

“We had enormous online support and we had people all over the world watching us via the live tracker and live feeds. The cream on the cake was raising funds for such a worthy cause as the Gavin Glynn Foundation. We are now at just over €45,000.”

It is the coldest channel crossing, so they are rightly very proud of that record. As to his next adventure Declan says: “I guess we will just rest a little and enjoy that achievement.

“That said I have an Ice Mile (1600m under 5C) planned for Feb, so the plan will be to just keep swimming.”