The 25th Annual Christmas Day Swim in Blacklion saw 40 brave souls take the plunge to raise money for the RNLI.

Over the last 25 years, the annual “Ice Breakers” swim has raised thousands of pounds for charity, from the very first swim back in 1993 when 14 people braved the water and it has become an ever present fixture on the calendar every year since.

On two occasions, have the Ice Breakers lived up to their name with the ice having to be broken on the lake to get in, but thankfully it was not a problem this year.

This year’s mild weather drew a large crowd to Lough MacNean and after a few words from one of the organisers, Sean Nolan, they took to the bitterly cold water.

Sean thanked all of the brave swimmers over the years, those that donated to all of the charities and all of those that came out on Christmas Day to support the event.

Organiser Danielle Nolan said she was delighted with how the event went.

“A lot of planning went into it this year. We wanted to make the 25th year a special one.

“We organized goodie bags for all the participants and had online registration for the first time and that really worked out well.”

“Every year we try and pick a local charity and this year we thought the RNLI was a very fitting charity. We have swimmers from Cavan, Fermanagh and Leitrim and the RNLI is something really important on the waters of all of these counties. They rely heavily on voluntary contributions so we are delighted to be able to help in anyway possible,” she said.