A homecoming event will be held in Galway to celebrate the achievements of a man who is believed to be the first person to swim around the country's coastline.
Daragh Morgan embarked on the fundraising swim five months ago and completed his endeavour this week.
It involved him covering around 15km each day, in order to circumnavigate a total distance of 1,468km.
Organisers will mark the completion of the swim with a homecoming event at Galway Harbour this afternoon.
Over the course of his journey, the 27-year-old was accompanied by a support fleet comprising three boats, with crews providing safety and navigational assistance when necessary.
The primary support vessel was the Naomh Crónán, a 13m Galway Hooker, provided by the Galway based Bádóirí an Chladaigh group of seafarers.
The expedition was captained by Dara Bailey, from Leitir Mór, and has raised over €27,000 for the RNLI and the Simon Community.
"Only a select few people would be able to skipper that vessel and Dara was the glue that held everything together," said Mr Morgan.
"He had so much to co-ordinate and organise all the way through this. Looking at tides, planning how we would get to GPS co-ordinates, taking to local fishermen and plotting the route."
Since the start of the expedition at the end of May, Mr Morgan embarked on 99 separate swims over 93 days.
He first came up with the idea in 2019.
"I was always into sport but I wanted to explore Ireland and dreamt up the idea from that notion.
"But I hadn’t done necessary training or anything, so I decided I needed to test my mind, body and soul to see if I could do this. I did several swims, ran the length of Ireland and then the width of Ireland non-stop. All those things fed into the swimming idea and got me ready."
He set off from Blackrock Diving Tower in Salthill last May, swimming first to Inis Mór. He then headed northwards, eventually travelling past 17 coastal counties, before returning to Galway this week.
Over the course of his swims, he said he endured multiple jellyfish stings and other injuries, as well as contending with challenging weather conditions and unfavourable seas.
"The hardest part was getting in the water to start off. The enormity of the logistics hit me then and I knew the scale of what I was about to undertake. Then the usual challenges came up…chaffing was a massive problem, I got badly injured and had to go to hospital at one stage, but we overcame everything to make a dream a reality.
"I was very ambitious with it. I set myself a target of three months initially, to have a deadline to work towards. That put a bit of urgency to it and we ended up doing it in five months and seventeen days."
"We logged our GPS co-ordinates everywhere we stopped and then started off again from there at the next stage of the journey."
Organisers are emphasising the importance of a community-based effort to complete the task, in the absence of major corporate sponsorship.
They believe the Dublin man is the first person to successfully complete such a journey.
At the end of it all, Mr Morgan said it was "pretty surreal and very emotional" to arrive back in Galway with his support crew.
"We went through so much together and developed a very strong bond for each other and for the country as well. It gave me an immense sense of pride to be back in Galway, holding the Irish flag and to be able to say we did it."
