Cork's Christmas in pictures: Swims, the wren, and regattas
Wren Boys all dressed up at the Wren Boys Street Festival on St. Stephen's Day that was held in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. Picture: David Creedon
THOUSANDS of hardy souls celebrated Christmas in their own way over the festive season, taking to the water, the waves, and, of course, going out on the Wren.
In Inchydoney, crowds of swimmers took to the water at 11am on Christmas morning to raise funds for the Dunmanway Day Unit in Cork University Hospital (CUH), where patients who have cancer receive chemotherapy.
The Dunmanway Day Unit is located in CUH and is open Monday through Saturday, from 8am to 6.15pm, and it offers superb care to patients who have cancer.
There was a huge turnout for the annual Fr Kingston swim from the main beach in Inchydoney also at 11am on Christmas morning, with large numbers of people taking to the water.
As always, all of the funds raised by the swim are going to help local priest Fr Kingston and the Spiritan mission in Mozambique.
Fr Kingston’s mission is to keep young people in education at secondary level as a way of helping the next generations rise out of their current poverty.
In Rosscarbery, swimmers braved water temperatures of about 10 degrees Celsius off of Warren Beach to raise money for Cancer Connect and for the Rosscarbery Social Services Centre.
At Garrylucas Beach, Kilmacsimon Rowing Club held its annual Christmas Day swim, raising funds for Cancer Connect and De Courcey defibrillators.
On Christmas Eve, hundreds jumped in the water at Myrtleville to help raise funds for the Harlequins Cricket Club, who are trying to improve their facilities. A charity swim also took place at Myrtleville on Christmas morning.
In Carrigaline, the Wren Boy street festival saw close to a thousand people turn out, with the wren boys followed by the straw boys in what became a feelgood event.
On the River Lee, three rowing clubs held “scatter” regattas, where crews were randomly selected from a metaphorical hat, with oarspeople of all ages put together in boats.
“Everyone who wants to race just turns up, and we have everyone from J14s to people in the 50s and 60s rowing, and we just pick random crews,” Pat Arigan of Shandon Boat Club told .
“We put them all in a virtual hat and out they come. We could have 14-year-olds, good juniors, good adults, and master rowers.
“It’s always great craic. The chaos is only at the start, trying to count the cats and see how many people want to take part in the racing and then tying to get them organised into random crews without trying to break your heart to make sure that the crews are even,” he said.
Brian O’Flaherty, president of Lee Rowing Club, said the morning had been great fun.
“We’re excited because the club will be 175 years next year, so we had a great turnout with 72 participants, we had seven races, with lots of parents and punch afterward. It’s a full event,” he said.
“It was important as well that we had a lot of beginners, who might have raced for the first time or won a medal for the first time.
“We have a current world silver under-23 medallist and he was racing with beginners,” Mr O’Flaherty said.
Cork Boat Club similarly hosted a scatter, and the club’s Kieran O’Sullivan said it had been a great pleasure to see club member Pat Duggan home from London, where he works as a rowing coach.
“This year, he became the coach to the Great Britain junior men’s squad, and they won a gold medal at the junior world rowing championships,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
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