{"id":383680,"date":"2026-04-05T20:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/383680\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T20:29:08","slug":"tributes-paid-to-arainn-mhor-charity-campaigner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/383680\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes paid to \u00c1rainn Mh\u00f3r charity campaigner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tributes have been paid to an \u00c1rainn Mh\u00f3r man whose charitable swimming accolades garnered global recognition.<\/p>\n

Paddy Conaghan, a former winner of the World Open Water Swimming Association Man of the Year Award in San Francisco in 2023, has died aged 85.<\/p>\n

He won the global award after his round-Ireland challenge, which he completed aged 81.<\/p>\n

He swam at as many piers and beaches as possible as he drove around the Irish coast, starting in December 2021 and finishing in February 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He left \u00c1rainn Mh\u00f3r in December 2021 to raise funds for Gemma’s Legacy of Hope, raising more than \u20ac100,000.<\/p>\n

Paddy Conaghan did a circuit of the coastline in his van, swimming an average of four times a day, but some days taking many more plunges.<\/p>\n

The following year, he carried out the same challenge, travelling clockwise around Ireland rather than anticlockwise, fundraising for various causes.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nPaddy Conaghan encouraged other older people to get active and make the most of life<\/p>\n

He also fundraised for the Irish Motor Neurone\u2019s Disease Association, where he dipped in a lake in every county, then onto waterfalls, fundraising for liquid therapy and his last challenge saw him travel the beaches of Wales, fundraising for Marie Curie.<\/p>\n

Along the way, people joined Mr Conaghan on his daily dips and followed his adventures on his social media accounts.<\/p>\n

He started the various challenges following the death of his daughter Angela Evans in 2020.<\/p>\n

Mr Conaghan spent his working life as a “tunnel tiger” working in tunnels in Thailand, Hong Kong, Denmark, the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and other places from Lands\u2019 End to John O\u2019 Groats.<\/p>\n

After he completed his 2022 challenge, he encouraged other older people to get active and make the most of life.<\/p>\n

He suggested that anyone who is “just doing nothing – waiting for old age to catch up with them” just start doing something like sea swimming because you will feel good after it.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Gemma\u2019s Legacy of Hope described Mr Conaghan as “a kind, caring and sincere man” who was an inspiration to all.<\/p>\n

They said his adventures ducking and diving around Ireland funded its counselling service for two years, in turn helping many people to get the help they need.<\/p>\n

Gemma’s Legacy of Hope said a guard of honour will be held for Mr Conaghan at Ailt an Chorr\u00e1in harbour tomorrow afternoon, as he sails to \u00c1rainn Mh\u00f3r for the last time.<\/p>\n

Mr Conaghan\u2019s funeral will take place this Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid to an \u00c1rainn Mh\u00f3r man whose charitable swimming accolades garnered global recognition. Paddy Conaghan,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-383680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}