Siobhán O’Brien jokes that in her 30s she regularly set new “personal bests” . . . for smoking.
“Twenty cigarettes a day and then probably more like 40 if I was on a night out,” she recalls. “When I was 34 my doctor told me to stop or I would end up in a wheelchair by 40. I decided that swimming would take my mind off nicotine, even though I was scared of the deep end and could only do a dodgy breaststroke back then.”
Now she sets swimming PBs, especially in open water events and the 68-year-old from Clare Hall will be among over 300-plus swimmers who will race 2,200 metres down Joyce’s fabled ‘Anna Livia’ this weekend.
“People usually say, ‘You do what? Are you mad?’ but this is my 30th Liffey Swim in a row and I wouldn’t miss it,” she says.
Siobhán has never looked back since taking her first swimming lessons in Donaghmede pool over 30 years ago. She’s a member of the National Aquatic Centre’s Masters club and trains three times a week. She favours open water races which vary in distance from 1,200 metres to 2,000 metres and the Liffey Swim is the highlight of the Irish ‘open’ season.
These races include a handicap system which gives everyone a fighting chance, even if there are sometimes accusations of ‘roping’, the equivalent of a hooky handicap in golf.
Given that her husband Declan Harte is one of the Liffey Swim’s three handicappers she says hers will always be kosher to avoid any charges of bias and she’s been allocated four minutes for Saturday’s 106th iteration of the iconic Irish event that is as much cultural as it is sporting.
That means she will enter the water four minutes after the first starters but still ahead of many others. “My job is to to beat all the people in front of me who are judged to be slower than me, before the people behind pass me out.
“It’s a competition within a competition,” she explains. “The young ones usually fly past you but you still try your best and there’s always also a team prize at stake.”
The river walls restrict numbers so, in order to qualify, swimmers must complete four of the ‘National Series’ races, most of which are at sea. Siobhán won the Dún Laoghaire Harbour swim, regarded as another of the ‘majors’, in 2005 but is jumping into the Liffey’s muddied water not far more daunting?
“The first time I did it, in 1996, I nearly had a panic attack because the water is brown and brackish and very cold, but now I’m used to it. It’s got that earthy taste and there’s always a bit of flotsam and jetsam, but you just try not to swallow any water.
“Fresh water is pumped into it beforehand, it’s tidal and once you get past the first bridge and there’s a good flow you’re flying.” Clocking the landmarks and quay-side audience while racing is all part of its unique attraction.
“You really notice the Four Courts and then Capel Street Bridge and then the Ha’penny Bridge and the taste of the water changes. Once you reach Capel Street it starts to taste of the sea,” she reveals.
The width of O’Connell Street bridge makes it the darkest and scariest part of the race, but she’s never seen rats or any of the other apocryphal sights rumoured to be encountered.
Originally from Beaumont, Siobhán inherited a love of the sea from her father and has clearly always been an adventurous spirit.
“I worked in Arnott’s originally and then I worked for a property developer. After the crash in 2008 I basically had to sack myself because I was doing his books and knew he couldn’t afford me.
“Then my mother died and it was the first time I wasn’t working so I decided to do a course. I got into Trinity’s Access Programme and studied ancient history, archaeology and English literature for four years, which was amazing.
“After graduation I worked in Trinity until the pandemic hit and my first grandson was born and through it all I’ve swum every week.
“Swimming’s been really good for me, particularly for my health and social life. Declan and I have swum ‘Alcatraz’ and in the Cook Islands. We go away to Madeira for a few weeks in January and have even joined a club over there.
“Open water is not for the faint-hearted or the vain,” she quips. “You get out looking like a mad Mary, with goggle marks and your hair wrecked and seaweed or whatever all over you, but my ethos is just to stay strong.
“At 68 my body isn’t as strong as it once was, but I swim, I do weights and I walk. I just do my best to stay healthy and that gives me loads of energy to spend time with my grandchildren. The only regret I have is that I tried doing a cartwheel the other week and couldn’t do it!”
The 106th Liffey Swim takes place this Saturday (11.30am-2pm), starting at Rory O’More Bridge and finishing at Custom House Quay