Hey ! Thanks so much to everyone who voted in the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association nominations ... my Lough Corrib swim only went won the Jack McClelland Award for pioneering swim 2025!
I am so chuffed. It's all a bit mad, how I can feel so slow in the pool and not a particularly good swimmer, and yet go and blast out a 40km (39.75km!) lake swim that's never been swum before. I still wonder how I swim these distances and hours, but there's a mad drive in me from somewhere I guess, and a love for the water and our global swimming community.
Thanks to my amazing crew on this swim whose positivity and support made it possible.
Anna, Pauline, Michelle, Eoin, Kathleen, Killlary Adventure Company and on the ground Annie and Kevin Coyne.
Here are some photos of the awards last night in Killaloe and the 'grand soft day' swim/dip we had in Lough Derg in the misty rain to clear the heads this morning. Thanks for the great night. @owsireland X
Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a great 2026.
Thanks Liz, Julia and Linda for the stunning swim in Sandycove last night under the firework display, and Claire and Caroline for inviting us back to warm up after. It was great craic but extremely baltic, our hands couldn't work after! But what a way to see the new year in. Photos Kelly Admirand.
The Irish Long Distance Swimming Association have ratified my Lough Corrib Swim from Cong to Galway City, 39.750km. This lake swim makes a great pairing with my Length of Lough Mask swim back in 2018. Two lakes that I loved and swam in many times during the days I that lived in Clonbur, before I knew about distance, when I was just leaping off any bridge or waterfall I could find!
Here are some photos of me jumping the old bridge stanchions in the Corrib while working with Macnas in the Fishery Fields in Galway (1999/2000’s over 25 years ago!) At our lunch breaks we would swim out and climb the stanchion, eating the wild strawberries that grew on the top before jumping off.
One photo is me jumping off the Quincentennial Bridge over the Corrib, watched by Peter Catsby, him and his brother Tommy were always up for a swim or jump.
I got such a buzz swimming under this bridge during my Corrib swim, and seeing the Galway Arts Festival blue top in the field where we worked, at the end of the swim. Photo 4.
The Caught Tribune wrote an article about my Corrib Swim here:
https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2025/08/08/visual-artist-completes-challenging-mayo-galway-swim-on-lough-corrib/
And an article on my Lough Mask swim way back in 2018.
https://outsider.ie/lifestyle/vanessa-daws-lough-mask/
Thanks @owsireland for the ratification and all the work you do for swimmers. And thanks to my amazing crew on the Corrib Swim, Michelle, Pauline, Eoin, Kathleen, Anna McCarthy my observer and Killary Adventure for the boat.
I just had a great two days in London researching and meeting artists.
Yesterday artist Nicole Mollette took me on an incredible art tour of London.
We first went to the V&A, looking mainly at the large - ridiculously gigantic - ancient sculptures and the ceramics. I loved so much here, too many to name, and way too many photos! Mainly of fish and dogs. Then we went to the Gasworks and the Handbag Factory, (both are art galleries incase anyone thinks I was out shopping for a new handbag 😆)
Then a gallery and artist whose names I have forgotten, but were behind two black doors and was full of drawings in pink, red and orange.
The Huxley-Parlour Gallery, was one of my favourites, the colours in Madeleine Bialke's paintings and the wooden reliefs of Aaron Spangler.
I'm so glad we went to see Kerry James Marshall at the RA. Each of the nine gallery rooms was like a gasp at the incredible colours, scale and power of his paintings. This was most impressive and historic.
Then we popped into the Richard Saltown Gallery on the way to the tube. It was all very inspiring. Thanks @nicole.mollett . Today I went to the Whitechapel on the way home. Photos: 1-6 in the V&A, 7 Madeleine Bialke, 8 Aaron Spangler, 9-10 Kerry James Marshall 12 Felicity Powell, 11 Candice Lin in the White Chapel, 13 Max Klinger
This painting of the friendly Barrel Jellyfish was taken from a morning swim with Liz and the twins in Killiney in the summer.
I'm making an edition of 30 prints of this painting on archive paper, 21cm x 29.5cm €48 each unframed.
This price doesn't include postage.
This painting was printed on vinyl - thanks @brandmarksigns - and installed on an arched doorway in the old lift shaft room at the Red Stables. It was part of my installation in partnership with the UNESCO Dublin Bay Biosphere at The Rose Festival at St Anne's Park in the summer. When the sun shone through it it looked like a Harry Clarke!
Thanks so much for this opportunity, this feels like such a special residency to receive. Ailbhe was a great support and inspiration to many people, I always valued any time that I got to chat with her.
@createcollaborativearts We are delighted to announce Vanessa Daws (@vanessadaws ) as the recipient of the Dr Ailbhe Murphy Research Residency.
Vanessa is a visual artist whose work explores place through swimming. The interdisciplinary and social nature of her work creates multi layered and expansive outcomes that hope to share the joy of water to a wider audience, and to raise awareness in people’s minds of how precious our global waterways are to human and non-human life.
Vanessa will use this Research Residency to explore our relationship to the water that surrounds us and the creatures in it, from a swimmer’s point of view, connecting with the Dublin Bay Biosphere.
Vanessa will receive a suite of supports over one year to develop her thinking and delve deeply into the wider context in which her practice takes place. Vanessa will be hosted in Create’s new Reading Room and Archive, and supported to access material within these collections. Access is offered to one-to-one sessions with Create staff as well as key staff at @immaireland and @nival_ncad . This Residency will begin in September 2025.
Read more about Vanessa's work and the Dr Ailbhe Murphy Research Residency at the link in bio.
Photo: Vanessa Daws, Ciaran Smyth and Damien McGlynn photographed in the Create Reading Room.
On Wednesday I swam Lough Corrib from Ashford Castle to Galway City!
I think it's a first time swim.
The 39.75 km (let's just call it 40 km!) took me 15.56 hours.
I had to seize a good weather window last minute as this weekend wasn't looking so good. This created mad logistics as the original crew weren't able to go so I had to find another boat, boat pilot, observer/crew and kayaker in one day! My support team were amazing, it was such a good adventure.
The wind gave me a nice push most of the way. The promised sun never materialised! I covered myself in zinc in preparation and ended up looking like the ghost swimmer of Lough Corrib!
I felt really strong and think my stroke was pretty consistent throughout. I got a bit chilly towards the end, and did wonder when the relentless green and red marker boys would ever end and get me into the Corrib River. I guess that's normal enough with no sleep the day before. I had thought the swim would take about 20 hours, so I was much quicker.
I'm delighted to have swum across the Corrib and Lough Mask (in 2018), especially as I used to live in Clonbur on the narrow strip of land between the two lakes, it's a beautiful area.
Thanks to Anna McCarthy, Eoin McCambridge, Pauline Jordan, Michelle Granaghan and Kathleen Fitzhenry for taking the day to help me achieve this swim. @killaryadventurecompany / @killarygaelforce thanks for the boat! Big thanks to @kingsswimmers for all their support and tough training. Thanks to Mark at @wild_galway_boat_tours who helped me with the lake recce, and Donnchadh for the initial chats. And thanks to all the other swimmers who helped me train. It's a great swim community to be a part of. 🐠
It was great to have a painting on the 'wee wall' at the @rha.arts open exhibition. And thanks to Deborah, (posing here with me here at the wall) who was the muse for this painting, from a photo taken while we were swimming at Blackrock. The beautiful frame made by Morris at @framefoundry .
My first 10 hour swim of the year in the bag! Yay!
Last week I swam with the Kings Swimmers Camp in Menorca.
Over the week I swam 26 hours and over 60km, including a 10 hour and a 6 hour swim.
Thanks to Kevin, the King of the English Channel, and Kathy and their fantastic team for looking after us all and feeding us for hours on end like hungry seals, as well the other swimmers were great fun and inspiring, it's so easy to swim distance when people smile and wave at you under the water.
The week has been a great confidence builder for the summer, and for me it proves there's still life in the old dog yet! 🐟🐕🐠 @kingsswimmers (my Garmin went a bit awol on the 10 hour, I did not escape the harbour! so I guestimated the distance from my other swims that week, on the lower side of course)
Thanks Visual Artists Ireland for including this article about myself and curator Rosie Hermon's project “Swimming a Long Way Together” and the influence of the English Channel and Mercedes Gleitze, in the current Visual Artist Newsletter Jan/Feb 2025.
@visualartistsireland@artscouncilireland@rosie.hermon
