One of two Galway students who survived a 15-hour ordeal overnight on paddleboards in stormy waters almost three years ago returned to the Aran islands for a unique exhibition opening yesterday.

As The Irish Independent reports, Ellen Glynn (20) was warmly welcomed by residents of Inis Oírr, who had been out searching for her on the night that she and her cousin, Sara Feeney, were declared missing at sea.

“It’s not triggering any more,” Glynn told the newspaper shortly after alighting from a bumpy ferry crossing from Ros-a-Mhíl to the southernmost Aran island.

Paddleboarder Ellen Glynn going blue for drowning prevention day at the Buoys Art Exhibition on Inis Oírr and below Ellen with one of the exhibits Photos: Cormac Coyne

Glynn was just 17 and Sara Feeney was 23 when they survived 15 hours on paddleboards in thunder, lightning and a north-easterly gale after they had been swept some 33 km from Furbo beach out the mouth of Galway Bay.

A key factor in their survival was their mental fortitude - they sang Taylor Swift songs to keep their spirits up.

In spite of exhaustion, they found the strength the following morning to secure their boards to floats marking crab pots set by Aran fisherman Bertie Donohue off Inis Oírr. At this point, they had been at sea overnight, wearing lifejackets and swimming togs.

After Claddagh father and son Patrick and Morgan Oliver located them on their fishing vessel that next morning, they landed them onto Inis Oírr pier, from where they were flown by Irish Coast Guard helicopter to hospital in Galway.

When Inis Oírr arts centre director Dara McGee decided that buoys collected by local fishermen should provide material for an artists’ exhibition this summer, he extended an invitation to the two women.

Sara Feeney is in New Zealand, but Glynn, who is studying at University of Galway, was a special guest at yesterday’s opening of “Buoys” at the island’s arts centre, Áras Éanna, along with her parents, Deirdre and Johnny.

McGee says the idea arose after the success of Áras Éanna’s “Curracha” exhibition in 2021 which saw 21 artists decorate 21 currachs displayed throughout the island during that Covid-restricted summer.

The “Buoys” exhibition came about after island fishermen had retrieved dozens of abandoned pieces of gear.

Roger Sweeney of Water Safety Ireland, who spoke at the opening, said that the exhibition “connects so well” with World Drowning Prevention Day on July 25th.

“It’s a reflection on the wonderful story that belongs to Ellen and her cousin, Sara, and it’s a remembrance of those who were not so lucky,” Sweeney said.

“It’s also an inspiring call to action through the arts that people need to make water safety part of their conversation with loved ones,” he said.

Sweeney said that 41 people have drowned so far this year in Ireland, but the overall annual figures are declining. While Ireland had 207 drownings on average every year in the 1980s, the ten year average is now 105 at a time when the population is increasing steadily.

Ellen Glynn, along with her parents, Deirdre and Johnny at the Buoys Art Exhibition on Inis Oírr Photo: Cormac Coyne

Sweeney noted that 80 per cent of people wear a lifejacket when involved in aquatic activities, which is up from 66 per cent in his organisation’s survey of 2017.

That survey also found that four in five people say that swimming and water safety education are “necessary life skills” which the Government, corporate sector and all sectors of society “must respond to”, Sweeney said.

All of the painted buoys have been hung along the stone walls leading to Inis Oírr’s lighthouse and have also been photographed for Áras Éanna by island photographer Cormac Coyne.

Participating artists include Michael Mulcahy,who was one of Inis Oírr’s first artist in residence, Galway city artists in residence Margaret Nolan, Siobhán O’Callaghan, Páraic Breathnach, Mary Fahy and Esther Stupers.

Also participating were artists Alissa Donoghue, Aisling Nic Craith, Martin Keady, Mykayla Myers, Philip Jacobsen, Rachel Towey, Sian Costello, primary school pupil Niamh Ní Dhonnacha and Natasha Mc Menamin.

Emma O’Grady and McGee collaborated for their buoy, which is illustrated with a poem written by O’Grady, entitled “Past the point of Rescue”.

It was inspired by the paddleboarders’ ordeal, O’Grady explained, before reading it at yesterday’s event.

“Buoys” is on display as an outdoor trail from the lighthouse on Inis Oírr from now until the end of September.

A parallel exhibition, entitled “Cloch” or “Stones” at Áras Éanna involves the work of photographers Cormac Coyne, Jacqui Reed of Donegal and Hwan Jin Jo of Jeju island, south Korea.

The photography in their exhibition reflects stone wall work on the Aran island and the similar dry stone wall tradition shared by the Korean island, where the south Korean residents work with volcanic rock.

Read more in The Irish Independent here