The Southern Star
20 episodes listed below
PRESS PLAY
From A to Sea is a series of podcasts focusing on the sea and swimming in West Cork and Ireland.Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin is an avid sea swimmer, and in this series she welcomes a number of brilliant guests on the show to talk about the beauty of the sea, how sea swimming has become more popular in West Cork and beyond since the pandemic, and why everyone should throw on a wetsuit and embrace the cold! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
From A to Sea makes open-water swimming legible through candid accounts of preparation, danger, endurance and the communities supporting each effort.
Siobhan Cronin starts with a swimmer's first connection to the water, then follows that history toward bigger crossings, colder conditions and public projects. The interview format gives From A to Sea room to connect achievement with preparation.
Fastnet Rock to a Crookhaven pint: your kind of gloriously overcommitted route?
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A quiet sea-swim story where charity, memory, and place pull together.
Orla Paterson's charity swim around Sandicove Island ties grief and memory to a very concrete route through the sea. The strongest stretch comes in the shift from her earliest memory of being washed in a sink, with her mother doing exercises, to the plain logistics of the…
A patient open-water story shaped by place, memory, and local detail.
Ozzy Schmidt's route from a childhood in Solingen, far from the sea, to the name behind the Gadonabout Garnish Swim gives this sports story real shape.
A grounded sea-story interview that is strongest in underwater detail, craft, and lived experience.
Ken O'Sullivan's conversation with Siobhan Cronin works best when it stays close to the practical realities of underwater work and the way that setting changes how things are felt.
A local swim conversation where place, ritual, and companionship matter more than polish.
This episode treats sea swimming as a social ritual as much as a physical one. It moves from why women show up in such numbers to the appeal of leaving work, chores, and the phone behind.
A family water-school story that ties swimming technique to place and memory.
The piece follows Ciaran Seawright as he speaks from the water school he runs at Pearsons Bridge near Cale Kill, where family history and practical teaching sit close together.
A grounded sea-swim portrait built around coaching, harbor access, and Sunday swims in Skull.
Sarah McKnight's journey from London to Skull gives the profile its clear line of movement, especially once a Cork man enters the story. After teaching in UK leisure centres, then on cruise ships, and later in the Cayman Islands, she now leads Sunday morning swims off the…
A reflective sea-swimming interview linking daily ritual, business strain, and coastal erosion.
Dina O'Donovan's conversation is anchored in the sea as a daily habit, while also looking back to childhood summers on Inchidani Beach and ahead to the strain of keeping going through difficult business years.
A sea-swimming story where endurance, family, and tide logic all matter.
Nuala Moore's story lands where swimming, sea knowledge, and family history meet: a daughter of a fishing family in Dingle, an athlete who has crossed some of the coldest and most remote waters in the world, and a woman who kept finding her way back to the ocean after marathon…
Boston chatter with a running start.
Faith, grit, Scripture, and hard talk.
Recovery talk with the rough edges left in.
Gaming arguments with a lived-in party-chat pulse.
Nuala Moore describes growing up in a fishing family in Dingle, learning to swim off piers and boats, and taking early water-safety courses at Slodin Beach.
Justin Crowley says the Galley Head 10km swim began after a 2018 ski trip, when he and Pat Mulcahy talked about West Cork Search and Rescue funding itself after the Teebán Ham disaster and 30 days of body recovery work.
At Pearsons Bridge near Cale Kill, Ciarán Seawright talks about the water school his late father Clive built.
Ken O'Shea traces the swim that took him from Fastnet Rock to Crookhaven.
Pamela Deasy of Union Hall links her life by the sea to her work with the RNLI, where she says she has raised almost €100,000 over 10 years and helped build the area’s lifeboat presence.
Sarah McKnight now lives in Skull after meeting a Cork man, and she works as a swimming teacher and open water and triathlon coach.
Carmel Collins, a Cork-based swim coach and award-winning ice swimmer, traces her path from school lessons and her father’s help to her first contact with water.
Tina, Margaret, and Clara describe the Reykjavik sea-swimming group they started in November three years ago during COVID, when Iceland’s swimming pools were shut.
Niall Kenny makes the case for a Lido in Cork.
Dina O'Donovan talks about a life shaped by salt water.
This episode explores the deep connection between women and water through mythology, literature, and practical impacts, featuring introductions of the host and guests for a discussion on this topic.
Corkwoman Orla Paterson recently did a 1.8-kilometre charity swim around Sandy Cove Island to raise funds for the Laura Lynn Foundation.
Biography interview with open water swimming legend Ozzy Schmidt covering his post-war German childhood, return to swimming at 40, organization of Irish Open Master Swimming Championships, and role in Cork's swimming community through Corkmasters and the Gadonabout Garnish charity swim.
Ken O'Sullivan, Irish underwater cinematographer and The Dark Ocean creator, traces his career from family fishing roots on Feenot Island (since 1750), through a failed music career in New York, to a transformative scuba discovery in Australia, and finally to pioneering underwater documentaries documenting never-before-filmed Irish marine life.
Host Siobhán Cronin and her friends Blondie O'Regan and Anne Scallon discuss their love for sea swimming, exploring why it's particularly popular among women, the mindfulness it brings, and their experience at the Great Fjord Swim in Killary Harbour.