After almost two months of hard work in decorating the clubhouse, the efforts paid off on Saturday morning last, when the club’s open day was drenched in sunshine with perfect conditions to showcase the event and club facilities.

A large number of volunteers assembled at 10am to start preparing the promenade and with a lot of work to be done, time quickly slipped past and soon the start time of 1 o'clock was looming. But everything was in place as DJ Timmy Raz started belting out the music to keep the crowd entertained for the afternoon. Fittingly our guest of honour for the event was Owen O’Keefe who is a fantastic ambassador for the area in addition to being a world class open water swimmer.

During the course of the day, the two club launches, and an Sporaid Naomh, John Mahon, were kept going non-stop for almost five hours from the promenade to Fermoy viaduct showing people a tremendously scenic part of the river Blackwater, which many people never get to see.

Fermoy fire brigade put on some great displays with two fantastic demonstrations of how a fire can go out of control and also allowing children to use fire hoses in controlled conditions. At the waters edge Pop O’Hara and the Cork branch of Irish Water Safety were busy demonstrating how to throw lifebuoys safely, which culminated in a competition with the best entries receiving prizes at the end of the event; later in the day Pop would also give a family lecture on water safety with a large attendance.

Throughout the day the face painters were kept busy with hundreds of children getting a myriad of different types of shapes and designs painted on their faces. With large groups also availing of the bouncy castle and the marine life display showing everyone what shellfish look like in their native environment the crowds continued to swell and grow throughout the day.

At 3.30pm the coastguard helicopter made a dramatic and impressive flyover with local coastguard winchman Adrian O’Hara, on the ground giving a commentary on the PA system. After an extended flyover, it was time for a simulated rescue on the river where one of the divers simulated someone falling into the water with some of the rescue divers and lifeguards demonstrating how to correctly rescue someone and carry out CPR and defibrillation to a large round of applause.

As the day was winding to a close there was a large number of prizes to be given out for the water safety art competition that was recently ran as part of the event. The quality of the entries was truly brilliant and well done to all the children who entered and the schools who encouraged such talent. The whole idea of the event was to get a whole generation of children from the area to think about water safety and to that end the event was a huge success. A huge thanks to Caroline Casey and everyone associated with Fermoy Swimming Pool and Cork Water Safety for sponsoring so many brilliant prizes.

Thanks also to everyone who assisted with the event, particularly Avondhu Blackwater partnership who sponsored an impressive looking interpretative sign for the clubs recent heritage wall project and also a big thanks to the local authority workers who had the promenade in a fantastic condition for the event.

Thanks to Fermoy Gardai, North Cork Civil Defence, Fermoy Fire Brigade, The Irish Coastguard, Sean Lomasney, DJ Timmy Raz and Vinnie Frawley, an Sporaid Naomh John Mahon wheelie boat, Rathcormac Scouts, Fermoy Scouts, Irish Water Safety - Cork Branch, Fermoy UDC, Fermoy Swimming Pool, Cork County Council, Adrian and Dick O’Hara, Fermoy Print and Design and everyone else who helped with the event.

Apologies if we have forgotten anyone, the amount of co operation and help from every group in the area in hosting the event was fantastic to see. Finally, thanks to Fermoy Business Action Group and in particular, Cllr Noel McCarthy, who carried out a huge volume of work assisting the club with the event.

Hopefully, the event will have left a positive impact of many of the children that attended and will promote water safety in the area.

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