'I just knew I had to do it': Daragh Morgan's epic swim around Ireland was six years in the making
Daragh Morgan is accompanied on his journey by the 43-foot Galway Hooker Naomh Cronán. Pic: Daragh Morgan
One of the first swims in his 1,600km test of endurance stands out for Daragh Morgan. He was heading from the Aran Islands to Lettermullan on the Connemara coast.
"It was beautiful," he says, "because I was in really deep water and there were dolphins underneath me. Then I swam into this passage and the water got a lot shallower. I could see all the seagrass, and different things, it was almost like I was snorkeling. I turned my head up and there was gorse burning in a field. It was just a huge, sensory, immersive experience, and it was the first step of the whole journey."
On May 31, Morgan set off from Blackrock Diving Tower in Galway with the goal to complete the first tidal-assisted stage swim Irish coast. The why is a question many have asked him. Some shook their heads and advised against it, telling him he wasn't ready. Yet the 26-year-old is nearly 60% of the way, approximately 900km, around the coast. He's also raising money for two charities, the RNLI and Simon Community.
Morgan took the first stroke two and a half months ago but really, this journey began years back. Over the last half decade, he's been preparing for it, directly and indirectly. He's run all 625km from Mizen Head to Malin Head, the 220km from his native Dublin to his adopted Galway, done the Galway Bay swim three times, the 30km from Malahide to Greystones, and the 43km from Salthill to Inis Mór.
"It was a dream I had about five, six years ago," Morgan explains, speaking from Blackwater in Wexford after another six hours and 27km in the water.
"I didn't know what to do with it. I was an okay swimmer. I worked as a beach lifeguard, but I didn't have the necessary... you need to go through a gauntlet of things to kind of do something as huge and as massive as that.
"I was working a job I didn't really too much enjoy. I was kind of disillusioned with the reality that I found myself in. I followed a usual path, going to college, getting a degree, and then getting a regular job, and it's fine, if you wanted it.
"I just felt there was something within me, something in my kind of soul that was uneasy. This dream kept coming up, and I didn't know how to really actualise it. I just knew I had to start back into really hard training again - train up my mind, my body, my soul, and just do these things that kind of challenged me, but also gave me great pleasure, and made me feel good about who I was, and what I was about.
"I always had this at the forefront, like this is the big one of everything that I've done, and I'd always been kind of planning towards it, and training towards it in the background, and it was only in the last one or two years that I actually kind of put it out there, and then that kind of put the wheels in motion."
Morgan had attempted to organise the swim last year but it fell through. It was a blessing in disguise due to last summer's poor weather. Earlier this year, the plan came together with the most important element being the boat. On his swim, Morgan is accompanied by the Naomh Cronán, a 43-foot Galway Hooker owned by Bádóirí an Chladaigh, a community group in Galway which restores the historic boats. It's crewed by skipper Dara Bailey, a director of Bádóirí an Chladaigh, along with pilots Cillín and Padraic McDonagh.
Depending on weather conditions, Morgan estimates the swim should be completed between mid-September and the end of the month.
"I just knew at the essence I had to do it, like it wouldn't leave me," he says, explaining why he ignored those who said he wasn't ready. "I knew in my heart of hearts that I was capable of making at the very least, a really good try at it. I just knew it deep down. I didn't really have too much together in terms of anything, but I just knew that if I just put my head down and worked very, very hard at getting that alongside my training, that things would materialise and come together."
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