Ronan finishes swim on a high note

FIVE intrepid celebrities have completed a marathon fundraising swim across the Irish Sea.

Olympic medallist swimmer Steve Parry led the group as pop star Ronan Keating, TV presenters Jenny Frost and Jason Bradbury, and Strictly Come Dancing star Pamela Stephenson all touched land on a beach just north of Wicklow pier at 8.18am.

They left Holyhead in Anglesey, north Wales, at 9pm on Tuesday. The 56 nautical mile (65 land mile) charity relay was in aid of Cancer Research UK.

As the tide pushed the swimmers further south than expected, the group had to take a boat back up the coast to the Forty Foot in Sandycove, where Keating’s father Gerry and sister Linda were among a small crowd of supporters gathered since sunrise.

Lynne Sharples, 47, from Deal in Kent, was also at the south Dublin swimming spot — popular among nudist swimmers — since midnight. The retail manager has spent £750 (€850) changing her flight three times to make sure she was in Dublin when her favourite pop star hit dry land.

“I didn’t want to miss showing my support in bringing them in,” said the mother of one.

“I’ve spent the same amount as I would to go to New York.”