In one of her last engagements before her inauguration as President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly led public representatives at the 15th Annual 'Swimmers Mass' in St Mary's Church, the Claddagh, Galway, on Saturday, November 8.

The November Mass, which is offered for swimmers in the city and others who have died in the past year, was celebrated by the Prior of Claddagh Church Dominican community, Fr Matthew Farrell OP and Fr Tim Mulcahy OP. The Mass is organised annually by Dr Dominic Colbert who, now in his 90s, is still a daily sea-swimmer in Salthill.

Dr Colbert is a retired orthopaedic surgeon whose long career saw him work as a Catholic missionary in various far-flung places, including in Biafra during the civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s. Addressing the large congregation at Mass, Dr Colbert recalled George Bernard Shaw's humorous description of Ireland as an "open-air lunatic asylum".

"Looking around at us plunging into the Atlantic in mid-winter makes me wonder if that was somehow true," he smiled. "But then I see so many happy, contented faces climbing out of the water and I am more than reassured of their sanity."

Dr Colbert said the most important thing people get from their swimming is a sense of wellbeing, accomplishment and of caring for each other.

Men in particular were slow to talk about Love, he said. But the "caring that swimmers give one another" was the face of Love, he said. "It's the same Love that occurs in so many close-knit communities and gives us strength to face another day."

Music for the liturgy was provided by Frankie Colohan and Carla Merrigan. And Galway Bay, not surprisingly, featured before the end of the Mass.

President-Elect Connolly, a frequent swimmer herself and a regular at the Annual Swimmers Mass, greeted dozens of well-wishers after the ceremony.

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