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NAC Masters Swimming Club:
The Club was founded by a small group of swimming friends in 1988. The club name, Millennium Masters, derives from the Dublin Millennium which occurred in that year, Dublin City being founded by the Vikings in 988 AD.
The Club quickly grew to a membership of over sixty and from early on, began competing in Masters Galas around Ireland. Arguably our best Gala result to date was the Munster Masters of 1997, when we finished third over-all. The Munster Masters hosted by Kingdom S.C. in Tralee Co. Kerry, had for a number of years been regarded as the Irish Masters Championships, being the most widely attended Masters event in Ireland. We also competed well in Open events run by Cork Masters.
In 2001 Millennium Masters won best Male team at Corrib Masters Gala, held annually in Leisureland , Salthill , Co. Galway. Masters Galas around Ireland and abroad have also produced a number of Irish Masters Records for the Club.
In the latter half of the 1990s open water swimming became increasingly popular with the membership. The open water season, organised by the Leinster Region of Swim Ireland comprises 25 or so races of between 1500m and 5000m in various locations around the greater Dublin area during the summer months. Millennium Masters proudly boasts winners in all three of the so-called 'classic' open water races namely, The Liffey Swim (Debbie Doyle 1999, Brian Mongey, 2000), The Dun Laoghaire Harbour Race (Anthony O Brien 2000) and The Island Race (Gerry Claffey, 2003).
More recently, a few brave souls have taken to marathon swimming and in the summer of 2003 Declan O Grady became the first Millennium swimmer to compete in the Killary Harbour 9-mile race and Lough Erne race over 6 miles. The summer of 2003 also saw a Millennium swimmer, Padraic Brady, attempt the world famous English Channel Swim. Unfortunately, Padraic's attempt on that occasion was hampered by weather conditions but he hopes to take part in a record breaking triple team crossing of the Channel in the summer of 2004.
In November 2004 Millenium Masters became the exclusive masters club based in the national aquatic centre (NAC). Millenium Masters became the NAC Masters. Since then we have continued to add to our list of winners of The Liffey Swim (Dan Smyth 2005) and Dun Laoghaire Harbour (Siobhan O’Brien 2005)
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