St Fiacc's impress at 2026 Irish National Swimming Championships

It was a week to remember for members of St Fiacc’s Swimming Club in Graiguecullen who competed successfully in the 2026 Irish National Youth and Senior Swimming Championships at venues in Limerick and Dublin. The events saw the 12-14 swimmers compete in UL Limerick while the National Aquatic Centre was the venue for the competitors from the age of fifteen and upwards.

In five days of competition 1,048 competitors from 141 clubs took to the waters with international swimmers from clubs across the continent including British competitors as well as swimmers from Switzerland, Germany, Dubai and Italy swimmers.

Hannah Coady from Tullow competed in seven events, heats and finals, over the five days achieving five national titles and two silver medals in the female 17+ age group. Hannah has been building to peak performance all season showing impressive form at McCullagh International in February and achieving national medals at the Irish Open in April.

Day 1 saw her competing in the 200m freestyle where she recorded a 2.71 sec Personal Best (PB) to claim gold in 2.03.91 and was the second fastest Irish female swimmer overall. On day 2 she took gold in the 50m Freestyle with a time of 26.93 secs (PB) and Silver in the 100m Butterfly with another personal best time. 

The Blue Ribbon 100m freestyle event on Day 3 saw Hannah in top form getting her hand on the wall in 57.32 seconds to claim gold. Day 4 saw her revert to Butterfly in the 50m event where she recorded a 0.64 sec PB to claim silver dipping under the 28 second mark for the first time at 27.83. Day 5 proved the most challenging with the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle events, heats in the morning session and finals in the evening. 

In terrific form, Hannah broke the 1.04 barrier on the 100m backstroke recording the fastest female time and taking gold in 1.03.89 secs. An hour later she was back on the blocks facing strong international competition from Anna Thompson of Dubai Aquatics. Coady tracked her stroke for stroke for 300m before her competitor took a late surge but she claimed national Gold in 4.28.93 secs with a 4.47 sec PB. 

She had a clean sweep in the Freestyle events claiming national gold in the 50m/100m/200m/400m events with the addition of the 100m backstroke and national silver in the 50m/100m Butterfly.

The four days of swimming at national age groups (12-14 year-olds) in Limerick represented the season finale for five young St Fiacc’s swimmers. 

Both the temperatures and the standard of competition were off the charts but the young ladies showed huge resilience and determination competing against over 570 swimmers from 105 Irish and International clubs. Between all their swims, Amelia Fraser, Caroline Hughes, Freya Murray, Lauren Byrne and Sadhbh Healy dropped 73.35 seconds earning four certificates for greatest percentage improvement with Lauren taking home national gold and silver medals in the 12 year-olds 200m breaststroke and 100m breaststroke events respectively.

In the 14 year old age group, Amelia Fraser qualified for finals in her three butterfly events registering a 0.24sec PB on her 50m Butterfly finishing 13th overall, she was just outside her PB by 0.19 on the 100m event finishing seventh overall and finished in style on the last day with a 3.26 sec PB in the heats and another 3.38 sec PB in the 200m Butterfly finals to finish fifth overall (fourth Irish swimmer) and secure a Highest Improvement Certificate for her 6.64 sec PB.

Breaststroker, Caroline Hughes, also in the 14-year-old age group, was just outside her PB in the 100m (25th place) and 50m (35th place) events but again saved the best for last with a 3.01 sec PB to reach the finals of the 200m event and shave an additional 0.85 seconds off to finish 12th overall.

In the 13-year-old age groups, Freya Murray displayed her versality combining her backstroke events with the challenging 800m freestyle and the 400 IM. Freya dropped a huge 5.32 secs in the 200m backstroke heats to secure a place in the final finishing 17th overall. 

On to the 800m freestyle which she has only swam once before, she recorded an impressive 16.22 sec PB to rank seventh. Reverting to her favoured stroke, Freya recorded a 1.99 sec PB on the 100m backstroke and dropped another 1.65 secs in the final to finish on a 1.15.55 ranking 12th overall. 

Despite the multiple swims, she still had just enough energy to tackle the formidable 400IM on the last day and hold her PB to finish 20th overall.

13-year-old teammate, Sadhbh Healy, recorded a huge 12.43 sec drop across her four events. On the 200m backstroke she dropped 2.44 secs and moved up the rankings by six places to finish just outside the finals in 23rd place. On the 50m breaststroke she recorded a .21 sec PB and a 0.69 sec PB on her 50m backstroke. 

Day 3 of competition saw Sadhbh smash her 200m breaststroke time with a 5.4 sec PB in the heats followed by a 3.69 second PB in the finals to finish on a 3.05.66 in 14th place overall and a much deserved Highest Improvement Certificate for her overall 9.09 PB.

Lauren Byrne was the only St Fiacc’s 12-year-old competing and did not disappoint in her first Summer National competition. On Day 1, Lauren smashed her 100m breaststroke time by 7.16 secs including heats and finals to win her first national silver medal on a 1.27.83 earning her a Highest Improvement Certificate as well. 

She followed this up with a 1.66 sec PB in the 200m backstroke finishing 12th overall in the finals. Her 6.20 sec pb on the 50m Breaststroke earned her another Highest Improvement Cert and she went on to shave another second off her 200IM swim to finish 14th overall. 

Day 3 brought Laurens top event, the 200m Breaststroke and with 2 huge PBs – 4.52 secs in the heats and 2.82 secs in the finals, Lauren converted the silver on the 100m distance to gold and national title on the 200m winning yet another Highest Improvement Certificate. 

Her final swim, the 50m backstroke earned her another 1.64 sec PB totalling a drop of 25 secs across the four days. It completed an amazing first national championships for this young swimmer.

It was an extraordinary success for the County Carlow swimmers.

Hannah Coady spends 14 pool hours a week and then puts her time into gym and strength conditioning sessions. She is also included in satellite training programmes and travels to Athy, New Ross and Waterford for further training sessions each week.

The rest of the swimmers are training 12 hours a week.

“Hannah is very talented. She has a work commitment and has a focus which means she is the full package. She is very coachable. We try different ways and it either works or it doesn’t,” says coach, Gillian Markey.

“I coached Hannah for two years when she was younger between the age of 12-15. I knew she was good. Early success is not a predictor of later success. You don’t really know until they are 15-16.” 

The ideal training would be in 50 metre pools but these are only in University of Limerick, UCD and the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin but Markey says the use of these facilities and travelling is expensive.