Sink or swim time for tenacious Henry

LITTLE Roise O’Donnell, aged nine months, joined her family to cheer Dad as he set off yesterday to swim Ireland.

Donegal man Henry O’Donnell, 42, leads the six-person expedition team who aim to complete the 1,300km coastline swim inside six weeks.

They need to finish to create the record — as the circumnavigation of the Ireland never been attempted.

A man of huge willpower, Henry’s tenacity is legendary. Paralysed in a bike crash during a triathlon 14 years ago, he fought back to full health in record time.

“He was paralysed from the neck down,” his wife Sinead recalled. “Over a period of a year he regained his ability to walk, to talk and eat properly — and he brought himself back to 100% fitness.

“He’s incredible. It’s mind over matter with Henry. It’s just his nature,” the mother of two explained.

“Henry and his colleagues are going to cover 30 statute miles (50km) per day.

“The swimming team have been training for a year-and-a-half and it’s been in the planning for two-and -a-half years,” said Sinead.

Carrickfin beach in Co Donegal was crowded for the splash-in. Gráinne, aged three, was there to see Dad off but the excitement nearly proved too much for Henry’s mother Gertie, who was given a garda escort and made the 2pm deadline.

Sinead O’Donnell is travelling on land with a back-up team while her husband and his colleagues swim for up to seven hours a day.

With Henry are brother and sister Ryan and Anne Marie Ward, Donegal; Ian Claxton, Dublin; Tom Watters, Galway and Nuala Moore, Dingle, Co Kerry.

The money raised will go to crew-training for the RNLI lifeboat organisation.

Scientific research will be carried out as they swim along the coastline, such as water temperatures for the Maritime Institute.