Mayo nurse who ‘escaped’ from Alcatraz completes marathon Clare Island swim

There was no need for grandmother of five Ann Ivers to sing The Saw Doctors’ song about taking “the ferry out from Roonagh” this weekend as she set off on her 5.3km swim to Clare Island.

It is not the first marathon swim completed by the 62-year-old community nurse from Kiltimagh, Co Mayo. To mark her 60th birthday two years ago, she “escaped” the onetime prison island of Alcatraz – swimming the two-mile journey to San Francisco.

For this weekend’s swim she was part of a flotilla of 45 swimmers, along with their kayak support team, undergoing the challenge to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland and the Order of Malta, Louisburgh.

The brainchild of Darragh O’Grady, whose partner Berenice’s family helped to establish Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, the event had been cancelled twice in early August due to the wild and windy weather which defined much of the summer in the west. The initiative has raised almost €45,000 to date, with fundraising continuing.

Undaunted by the deferrals, Ivers continued her training regime.

“For the last two weeks, I did sessions of two four-kilometre swims and two three-kilometres. Depending on weather conditions, I’d swim from Enniscrone in Co Sligo or from the Quay in Westport with a group of local swimmers who were also doing the charity swim. I also regularly swam on Lough Carra, or, if the weather was really bad, I’d have to resort to the pool in Claremorris,” explains Ivers.

Speaking before Saturday’s swim, she said: “I plan to take it nice and steady. It helps that I have been really put at ease by Brendan Forkan, my kayak support. I’ll see him all the way no matter what and, to be honest, the level of safety by the organisers has been so reassuring. We have to wear wetsuits and tow floats.”

She recalls how the safety measures were not quite as good for the swim from Alcatraz.

“We had to jump off a boat for the 3km swim and along the way the weather changed. We were being pitched around the place and it was challenging, a little scary and with a smaller support team,” Ivers says.

Meanwhile, the organisers of the Roonagh to Clare Island swim were finally fortunate with the weather gods on Saturday morning. Roonagh Pier, which services both Inishturk and Clare Island, is often unapproachable due to swells and howling winds during the winter months. Conditions were more like the Mediterranean as the swimmers were sent off in five waves of nine, with an individual kayaker for each swimmer, as well as a plethora of other boats and island ferries.

“After the summer we’ve had, the weather was ideal and the sense of communal camaraderie on the mainland and the island was just brilliant,” says one of the organisers, Tommy Morahan. He says Ivers’ participation and positive energy and attitude was inspirational for all those involved.

“She had a big broad smile on her face when she landed on the beach on Clare Island.”

Part of the third wave of swimmers, Ivers finished the swim in two hours and 10 minutes. While it is not defined as a race, the fastest time to complete the swim was clocked up by Tomás Lynn at one hour and 31 minutes.

“I took it nice and steady, stopped for a drink of water and a bite from a banana. I bumped into the odd jellyfish and when I was occasionally veering off course, Brendan would put me right again,” she said.

Ivers didn’t see any sign of the pod of dolphins following the Clare Island ferries all summer but clearly she wouldn’t have been fazed if they had joined her.

With her husband, Eugene, waiting for her on the island beach amid a carnival atmosphere, it was time to send pics to her daughter in Australia.

“She’s expecting our sixth grandchild but obviously would have loved to be here cheering me on.”