On a weekend when Katie Taylor once again captured the hearts of our nation, there was another remarkable sporting achievement in early August that we didn’t get to mention until now – not as much hype, but no less worthy of our full admiration. Closer to home, we have a quiet hero in our midst. On the edge of West Cork, at dawn on August 8th 2026, Debi Coffey swam almost 20kms through the Atlantic from Fastnet Lighthouse to Baltimore. 6 hours, 16 mins later, she made it.
There were no roaring crowds on the ocean swim route, no television cameras following every moment. Just the vast Atlantic, one accompanying boat, an experienced crew & one fiercely determined lady who had spent years preparing for this moment. And perhaps what makes Debi’s achievement so special is that this swim didn’t really begin in Cork at all.
It began many years ago, when a little girl stood watching a lone swimmer heading out into the Atlantic at Cappa in Kilrush. Debi was 10 years old. She remembers wondering why nobody else was swimming with her or after her. Debi wanted to go too but she was too shy & quiet to ask. Debi simply watched that swimmer disappear into the distance & thought to herself: ‘I’ll do it someday’. That swimmer was Fionnuala Walsh. More than three decades later, Debi found herself swimming from Fastnet Lighthouse towards Cork, with Fionnuala not only there to watch, but helped to crew her across. Sometimes, the most extraordinary journeys take a very long time to come full circle. And Debi Coffey’s certainly did.
Growing up in West Clare, Debi never had the traditional swimming club experience. Travelling to swimming pools in Ennis & Shannon was difficult because she suffered badly from car sickness, so her parents found a much simpler solution. They let her stay in the Atlantic. Those early years in the sea gave Debi a natural relationship with open water & although she moved on to lifeguard training & college, the ability & love of the sea never really left her. It was many years before she began to wonder if that childhood fascination could become something more.
By then, Debi was in her thirties, a mother of three girls & still carrying that little question with her: Am I brave enough to do this? She had spent years wondering about distance swimming. Eventually, she started marathon swim training & kept at it…. For seven years…. Then….3 years ago, she mentioned the possibility of swimming Fastnet Lighthouse to Niall. His response was characteristically practical. He handed her his bank card. “Book it,” was the message. “Or you’ll never know. All you can do is try.” And so she did.
A long distance open water swim is not something you simply decide to do one morning & hope for the best. Debi’s Fastnet swim was the culmination of years of training, preparation, discipline & perhaps most importantly, learning to trust herself. Her training was supported by Atlantic Masters Galway, the club that prepared her physically & mentally for the challenge. There were the long swims, the cold water, the repetitive training sessions & the inevitable days when motivation was not quite as strong as it was on others. There were also the lessons that come with marathon swimming: pacing, feeding, endurance, dealing with changing conditions & learning how to keep going when your body is asking a very reasonable question – Are we there yet?
In July 2024, Debi completed the 13km Galway Bay crossing for the first time without a wetsuit, having previously completed the crossing in a wetsuit. That swim was undertaken in support of Cancer Care West & represented another significant step in her progression as a marathon swimmer. But Fastnet was different. This was the one she had been working towards for 3 solid years. And the rules of these swims leave very little room for shortcuts….. The swimmer can’t touch the boat accompanying them or else you’re immediately disqualified. Food & drinks have to be thrown out to the swimmer on a rope, to be taken while remaining in the water. No climbing aboard for a rest. No convenient little sit down when feeling fatigued. Just the swimmer, the wild sea & whatever determination can be summoned from somewhere deep inside.
From the outside, this Fastnet swim can look like the ultimate individual achievement. One swimmer…..One enormous stretch of ocean….. One destination. But anyone who knows the sport understands that the swimmer is never really alone. It takes a team to swim alone. Debi’s Fastnet crossing was made possible by Cork skipper Kieran Collins & a crew of experienced channel swimmers, Fergal Madden, Fionnuala Walsh & Marie Watson. That crew were important to Debi’s remarkable achievement in the water. They navigated, supported, fed & encouraged her, watched the conditions & helped keep the whole operation moving towards the Cork coastline in Baltimore. And then there was Fionnuala.
The little 10 year old Debi in Kilrush who had once watched Fionnuala swim out into the sea had, all those years later, become a marathon swimmer herself. And now Fionnuala was the one helping Debi crew her Fastnet swim. It is difficult to write a more perfect circle than that.
Fionnuala Walsh went on to become the first Irish woman to achieve the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. For Debi, however, she was something even more important: proof that it could be done. “You have to see it to be it,” Debi quoted. For a 10 year old girl watching from the shore, seeing one woman swimming into the distance was enough to plant the idea. It took Debi a long time to believe she could follow. While the sea was the place Debi trained, inspiration came from all around her.
One of those sources was much closer to home – our own club – Colemanstown United. Debi had seen first hand what a strong sporting community can give children through a growing club & it’s successful Academy, where her & Niall’s 3 daughters play. During the periods when marathon swim training became difficult or her motivation dipped, Debi found herself hugely inspired by watching the girls play, develop & perform as a team. She also took great inspiration from Colemanstown United’s Over- 35 ladies team who won the inaugural Over-35 ladies tournament last year. For Debi, that victory meant something beyond the trophy.
Sport does not have to finish when childhood does. In fact, later in life, it can become more important to be involved but it’s only recently Debi’s generation & similar have the same opportunities. Now many sons & daughters can grow up seeing their own mothers & fathers playing, competing & lifting trophies. They can see older women making sport part of their lives. ‘They can see it to be it’ And Debi knows how powerful that can be!. At 10 years old, she had one woman to look up to in Kilrush. Her daughters now have an entire club. There was something particularly fitting about the day Debi travelled to Cork for her Fastnet swim. She left Colemanstown United’s summer soccer camp & headed for the coast. She was absolutely buzzing as she drove to the swim on Thursday 6th August with Fionnuala.
The little girl who had once watched a swimmer disappear into the Atlantic was now travelling with that same woman towards her own great swim. There was no guarantee it would work out…. There never is. 3 years of preparation can bring you to the starting point, but once you enter the water, you still have to swim every one of those kilometres yourself.
Fastnet Lighthouse stands out on the edge of West Cork, an iconic landmark surrounded by Atlantic water. For Debi, reaching the Cork coast meant swimming almost 20kms through that water…. And she did it…. In 6 hours & 16 minutes, Debi Coffey completed her Fastnet swim. 6 hours & 16 minutes of swimming….No touching the boat….No climbing aboard…. Food & drink taken in the water….6 hours & 16mins of putting one arm in front of the other while trusting the preparation, the crew & the belief that had taken years to build. It is an extraordinary physical accomplishment.
But perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is that the swim began when Debi was just 10 years old, stood on the shore at Cappa as she watched someone else be brave. She was too shy to ask to swim with her then. She wasn’t too shy to finally follow her.
There is a message here for everyone as Debi’s fabulous story unfolds….Stick with your sport….Stick with what you love….Because sport can stay with you for life & as Debi puts it, you can get back ten times what you give. That is something she has experienced herself. The Atlantic gave her skills as a child that never disappeared. Swimming gave her a challenge as an adult. Atlantic Masters Galway gave her the structure & support to prepare. Her crew got her across the water. Fionnuala gave her inspiration. And Colemanstown United gave her another kind of motivation; the sight of children discovering sport, friendships & confidence, & women proving that there is no expiry date on participation or achievement.
Perhaps that is why the Fastnet swim meant so much….It wasn’t simply a swim from a lighthouse….It was a swim towards a promise made by a 10 year old girl to herself….Someday.
From Kilrush to Tiaquin, from Colemanstown to Cork, from the football pitch to the open Atlantic, it took a community to get Debi Coffey to Fastnet. But when she entered that water, there was only one person who could swim those 20kms. And she did. Sometimes you just have to book it. Then breathe it in & swim !
‘You have to see it to be it’ & perhaps the greatest gift we can give the next generation is something worth believing they can become.
