Lough Key Swim Club

08/09/2026

An quick update on some of what we’ve been up to the last few weekends 🌍

August 23rd we had Sue, Una, Ed, Rachael and Mick swimming in Kinvara for the Atlantic Masters Swimming Club Galway annual swim at traught beach in excellent conditions, plenty of refreshments and sweet treats was laid on afterwards ☕️ 🍰

August 29th we had stayed on home soil, some of our members were helping out and taking part in the ever popular Lough Key Triathlon where 240 participants lined up at the start line 🏊 🚴‍♀️ 🏃🏻‍♂️ 🌲

September 5th another road trip 🚙 Mick, Una and Sue headed to limerick for the Island swim which was voted best organised open water swim in 2025 organised by the limerick narwhals an co 👏🏻 Limerick Masters Swim Club Limerick Swimming Club Limerick Triathlon Club

Kinvara 2.7k
Edward McGuire 44.35 6th male wetsuit
Rachael Martens 50.00 6th female wetsuit
Sue Wynne 52.40 7th female wetsuit
Una MacDermott 54.28 9th female wetsuit
Mick o Rourke 1.01 16th male wetsuit

Lough Key Sprint Triathlon
Cathal Doherty 1.33 3rd in age category
Therese Duignan 1.46 3rd in age category
Kevin Kerr 1.51
Bernie Carthy 2.00

Island Swim 3.8k
Sue Wynne 1.15 10th female wetsuit
Una MacDermott 1.17 12th female wetsuit
Mick o Rourke 1.31 32th male wetsuit

30/08/2026

16/08/2026

Following on from our last event in portumna it’s been all FEMALE representation since 😳💪 Helen Gormley travelled to ballina as our only representative in the River Moy Swim, after the long dry spell there wasn’t much of a flow compared to last years splash an dash, Helen was delighted as she got better value for money this year 🏊🏼‍♀️ 😂

Next up was the Gartan Open Water Swimmers Inch Mile in Rathmullan (Donegal) where we had our first ever entrants, Áine Higgins and Una MacDermott make the long journey through the “Hills of Donegal” then boarded a ferry to be taking 1 mile out in to Lough Swilly where all swimmers jump off and swim back to beach ⛴️

We stayed a little bit closer to home this weekend an headed to Glencar Lough Swim for there annual fundraising swim in a beautiful setting with mountains on both sides of the lake ⛰️ 🏊🏼‍♂️ Siobhán Keenahan, Therese Duignan and Áine Higgins flew the flag for us this year 💪

River Moy 2.5k
Helen Gormley 1.11 25th Female

Inch Mile
Una Mac Dermott 46.20 16th Female
Áine Higgins 1.04 43rd Female

Glencar 1k
Áine Higgins 27.25 16th Female

Glencar 2k
Siobhán Keenahan 41.04 4th Female
Therese Duignan 57.04 11th Female

13/08/2026

A follow up on the algae situation in Lough Key, yes it’s still very prevalent in lots of areas around the lake, Roscommon County Council are advising against swimming in all waters effected by the algae bloom ☠️

Today August 13th there is still lots of families swimming in the doon shore even tho the algae is visibly present as you can see in the photos that were taken today 🤢

10/08/2026

🚨 Anyone walking dogs ANYWHERE around lough key lake beware there is now a dense growth of algae especially along the shore lines, and can be lethal to dogs ⚠️ Not ideal conditions for swimming in either as it can cause skin irritation or unpleasant stomach aches if any is swallowed 🤢

07/08/2026

We’re a few weeks behind with posting recent events due to a few different issues but better late than never 😬

On July 11th we headed to portumna for the second of the Gaelforce Events trilogy swims and just like last year the weather was fantastic aka baking sunshine 🌞

We had swimmers in both the 750m and 2000m and both distances were reading a quite bit longer on the GPS watches 💪 Plus we had 1 swimmer that got sort of lost an was going the wrong way but we won’t say who 🤐 We have 2 medals to report 👏🏻

Edward McGuire came home just in front to win the 750m for the second year in a row in Lough Derg 🏅 Lorcan Kirwan was just pipped for 3rd but was first home in his age category in the 2000m 🎖️ Well done to all the swimmers it was a great day out ❤️

750m
Edward McGuire 15.36 1st Male

2000m
Lorcan Kirwan 43.33 4th Male
Paula Sharkey 56.06 19th Female
Fiona Davis 59.28 33rd Female
Kirsty Ainge 1.13 69th Female
Áine Higgins 1.16 70th Female
Mags Wade 1.21 76th Female
Helen Gormley 1.30 78th Female

06/08/2026

🙏🏻 Owner Located 🏊🏼‍♀️

I spoke to 2 swimmers that was swimming inside the piers at doon shore this afternoon, they were gone when I got out but they left these hand paddles after them 🙈 We brought them with us so if they see this post send us a message and we’ll get them back to ye 🤞