FINGAL County Council has honoured the achievement of a local woman in setting the fastest ever time by an Irish person for swimming the English Channel.
Last August, Rachael Lee, from Malahide, swam from Dover to Calais in nine hours and 40 minutes and beat the previous best time by 11 minutes which had, ironically, been set by her partner Tom Healy.
Mayor of Fingal Cllr Darragh Butler made a special presentation to Rachael last week at County Hall, Swords.
“Swimming the Channel is one of the great feats in the sport of swimming and Rachael has joined an illustrious group of special men and women,” said the Mayor.
“We shouldn’t be too surprised at Rachael’s feat or her impressive time because she has impressive pedigree as a swimmer.
Her swimming skills were honed off the High Rock in Malahide and she is also a Swift-Water Rescue Technican, as part of her day job with Dublin Fire Brigade. Indeed, she was involved in the rescue of a man who fell into the River Liffey just days before her Channel swim.”
The Mayor also recalled that Rachael was part of a Dublin Fire Brigade team that completed a two-way relay swim of the Channel in 2008 and has also won the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association’s Women’s Championship as well as the prestigious Lake Windemere Race in Britain and the Liffey Swim here.
Chief executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid, also congratulated Rachael.
“We try to encourage people to be active in sport because we have such a young population in Fingal,” he said.
“Sport promotes wellbeing and positive mental health.”
and we now have another great model in Rachael Lee.”