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An Irishman Abroad

Claire Walsh: Learning To Breathe Again

An Irishman Abroad

Jarlath Regan

Society & Culture, News, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture:personal Journals, Personal Journals, Politics

4.8 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The headline might read, 'Claire Walsh - the only Irish person ever to compete at the Freediving World Championships' but there is way more to the story of this trailblazing Irish woman. Jarlath caught up with Claire at an unusual crossroads in her life. Before all hell broke loose, when she wasn’t travelling the world taking part in one of the toughest sports known to man, Claire Walsh taught businesses and individuals how to harness the power of their breath. All that came to an abrupt halt for obvious reasons. Today as she prepares to write her story for the first time, we get the unfiltered account of what brought her to the edge and what stopped her from tipping over. Thanks to all those who support Irishman Abroad in whatever way you can. The best way is to kick in a couple of euro a month on Patreon in return for access to all our content including hundreds of hours of archived interviews and up-coming conversations with the likes of Jack Whitehall and Catherina McKiernan.   To hear every episode in full and to gain access to the entire back-catalogue of over 500 Irishman Abroad episodes that are not available on iTunes for just the price of a pint every month visit www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad   Supplementary research provided by John Meagher. Our charity partner is jigsawonline.ie. In these tricky times, Jigsaw provides a range of resources, advice and care for your people to help them strengthen their mental health and the skills needed to navigate life. Please visit their website and consider making a donation. For updates on future episodes and live shows follow @jarlath on Twitter, visit www.jigser.com or email the show directly on [email protected]. Disclaimer: All materials contained within this podcast are copyright protected. Third party reuse and/or quotation in whole or in part is prohibited unless direct credit and/or hyperlink to the Irishman Abroad podcast is clearly and accurately provided.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello there and welcome to this Sunday's episode of an Irishman abroad with me, Jarleth

0:05.6

Regan. Well, we have an unbelievable guest for you today, Claire Walsh, who is an extraordinary

0:12.5

human being, speaker and athlete who takes part in the sport of free diving, which you may not

0:18.7

know what it is to start with coming to this episode.

0:22.5

I think I had an idea in my head what it was, but didn't know the specifics.

0:27.4

Well, Claire can explain it an awful lot better than me, but free diving is basically breath holding

0:31.8

underwater and travelling as far as you can without having to surface for oxygen.

0:37.1

It's terrifying, just the sound of it,

0:39.4

but it's about confronting your limits, surrendering to them, accepting them pushing by them,

0:45.4

and an awful lot more. And Claire Walsh knows a thing or two about all of those things.

0:51.0

She's lived a life, it's fair to say. And here for the first time she really talks

0:55.7

about what took place to bring her to the point of deciding that she would be the first Irish

1:01.9

person to go to the World Free Diving Championships to quit her job and devote herself to this.

1:07.8

A lot has to happen and a lot did happen. I'll let her explain it, but if you're

1:13.8

struggling this year, if you've been through difficult times, which pretty much everyone I know has,

1:19.4

you have to know that there are people around there for you. The chosen charity partner of our

1:24.5

podcast is jigsaw.com.com. And they're specifically thinking about young people

1:29.6

back home in Ireland. They work within communities to provide workshops and facilities and services

1:35.4

to equip young people with the mental health tools they'll need to survive the tough times

1:41.2

that they've been through and that lie ahead.

1:49.4

I'd imagine that Claire could have used a jigsaw during her toughest times.

1:55.1

But she's a story of survival and out the other side she comes with this incredible story to tell.

...

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