Cavan's Swellan Lake claims 13 lives over past century

Michael Cryan Over the past century 13 people have drowned on Swellan Lake in Cavan town and to highlight the dangers of swimming in lakes one of the county's best-known long-distance swimmers has launched a campaign to encourage people to learn to swim. Sean Walsh has been swimming in the lake for more years than he cares to remember and he has first hand experience of the hazards swimmers face on Swellan as he saved a life there some 43 years ago. It was a fine August evening and Sean, John McDermott and the late Clyde Jenkins finished work and decided to go for a dip. They decided to do a lap of the lake and they set off from the area of the pipe. "John set out first, I followed and Clyde was behind me." They had only gone about 100 yards when John got tangled in weeds and was pulled under. Luckily for him Sean was close behind and managed to rescue him and get him ashore. Returning to the scene of the incident last week John said he was grateful to Sean for saving him. "I was lucky that he was behind me and not in front of me or things may not have worked out as they did." He admitted he was struggling to break free from the weeds and was face down in the water. John was concerned as he could not untangle himself. Although the incident only lasted a matter of seconds it felt like an eternity to John. "I would encourage everyone to learn to swim and not to enter a lake unless they can." A native of Dunmore in Galway, John is retired from Cavan County Council and is living in Cavan town for the past 45 years. Sean points out that Swellan was a mecca for everyone in the town and the late Walter Lyttle, a former woodwork teacher in the old Tech built two diving boards on the lake shore. He also paid tribute to the work of the late Eileen Maloney, mother of George V. Maloney, who played a leading role in water safety in Cavan. Centenary of drowning This year marks the centenary of death of John Dalton from Mullagh who drowned on the lake on Thursday, July 13, 1911. This tragedy was followed by the death of a Miss Soden some years later. In 1929, the lake claimed the lives of two Cavan men on June 10, 1929. James Callaghan aged 22 and John Reilly aged 28 both worked for the Great Southern Railway. On Thursday, March 20, 1930, the body of 50-year-old Francis McCormack from Kilnavara in Cavan town was taken from the lake. The following decade, the body of Peter Ford, a Mayo man, who worked in a bank in Cavan town, was taken from the lake on July 25, 1942. Seven years later Donald O'Connell from Cork, who was a stone mason at Cavan Cathedral drowned in the lake. Eleven-year-old Robert Henry from Market Street, Cootehill, drowned while swimming in the lake on July 29, 1955. The following year 19-year-old Thomas Drumm from Tullacmongan drowned while swimming near the diving board on Sunday, June 10, 1956. In 1975, 14-year-old Philip Sexton from St. Patrick's Terrace in Cavan town, drowned on July 9, 1975. The boy, who was a non-swimmer, had been out on the lake on an airbed and disappeared from view. Eamon Smith from Glenside Road, Cavan, also drowned. As Sean points out that while there have been many tragedies a lot more people have been saved. "That is why I am encouraging people to learn to swim as lakes can be treacherous." The Irish Water Safety Association holds swimming lessons each year at various locations around the county and Sean feels that both young and old should avail of them.