The latest edition of the From A to Sea podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at Bandon Town Hall during the recent Banshee Festival.

Organised by Marguerite McQuaid, secretary of Creative Bandon, the annual festival enjoys a varied arts programme, marking the start of the Halloween season in West Cork.

For this month’s podcast, host and Southern Star editor Siobhán Cronin was joined by three wonderful guests to discuss the theme of ‘Women and Water’.

Women and Water – even the words have a wonderful symbiosis … they both begin with w, they both contain two syllables and of course, water is the source of all life, as are women.

It’s no wonder women feel so connected to H2O.

Siobhán’s guests – who dive deep into the subject matter – are author, extreme swimmer and businesswoman Nuala Moore from Dingle; Durrus-based yoga teacher, wild swimming enthusiast and children’s swimming coach Dominique Corcoran, and educator and sea enthusiast Katie McShane, the founder of Wise Water, based in Kinsale.

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Cork woman Orlagh Patterson recently undertook a 1.8km charity swim around Sandycove Island outside Kinsale to raise funds for the LauraLynn foundation, Ireland’s only children’s hospice.

She undertook the swim after the incredible support the charity gave, and continues to give, her family, following the death of her niece’s son, just five days after his birth.

But she also undertook it because it marked 50 years since the death of her own twin brother, who survived for just one day.

She spoke to podcast host Siobhán Cronin recently about her love of the sea and how she inherited that trait from her father, who passed on his love of water to her, at a very young age.

To donate to LauraLynn see: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/OrlaghPatterson or www.lauralynn.ie

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Hotelier Dena O’Donovan is a businesswoman, musician, entrepreneur and … daily sea swimmer.

Having spent her childhood summers on Inchydoney Beach, the Clonakilty woman has continued her love affair with the popular strand and can be seen there most mornings splashing about in the waves or swimming short distances for health and well-being.

She admits that her much-publicised trials and tribulations at the hands of a vulture fund in recent years have left her seeking the solace of the salty water more than ever.

But she is also actively involved, along with other Inchydoney locals, in research, spear-headed by UCC, to monitor the ongoing coastal erosion at her beloved beach.

As a result of this, the BBC recently shot an episode of its Storyworks series at Inchydoney, featuring Dena, and the story of coastal erosion.

But for now, here’s a little chat our editor Siobhán Cronin had with Dena about her lifelong fascination with saltwater.

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