Cathy Kelleher

Cathy Kelleher

Friends of friends are great. If you love your friends you’re probably going to love their friends, even their new friends. Unaware that they had all only just met Johnathan and Fionnuala were sitting in the café at the pool with Cathy. We immediately felt the connection and wanted to know more about her.

What is your Bondi story?

“I came to Bondi from Dublin with my husband, Jim, to visit our son Patrick (Paddy) Kelleher and his girlfriend, Lisa Quigley, who have been living and working here since February 2025. Australia was never on our list of places to go, and I still can’t believe I almost missed the chance to visit this beautiful country, especially Sydney.

As an evangelical, all‑year‑round sea swimmer in Seapoint and the Forty Foot in County Dublin, I was naturally drawn to the Bondi Icebergs Pool. Swimming is the cure for most of what ails me. I loved my swims here straight away, but I missed the camaraderie and the chats that are such a big part of sea swimming back home.

That changed one morning when I met Jonathan Nolan and his sister Fionnuala, who introduced me to Melanie, Ruth, Susan and Agnes. Thank you all for being so welcoming and inclusive.

And so, on the other side of the world, I’ve found my swimming tribe and continue the life‑giving ritual of a morning swim, a chat and watching the ocean — the gift that keeps on giving.”

How do you spend the first hour of every day?

“Although I retired in August 2025, I still wake early. The difference now is that I begin my day in a more leisurely way — scrolling on my phone, catching up on texts, playing Wordle, Connections, doing crosswords  and reading my book.

One of the joys of retirement is that I can swim practically every day, and my best days begin with an early dip. In Dublin, that might be Newpark swimming pool or Seapoint beach; in Bondi, it’s the Icebergs Pool.

To paraphrase the The Stylistics 1974 soul ballad, swimming “makes me feel brand new.” My mind and body glow afterwards, a sensation that stays with me and lifts my mood long into the day.”

Is there one thing you would like people to know about you?

“I’m a curious person. I’m fascinated by people’s life stories — the more tangential, the better and I love nothing more than a good “small‑world story” and making connections. No matter where I am in the world, I  find like‑minded people.

I agree with Maya Angelou*, the American civil rights activist, memoirist and poet, who wrote in The Human Family that despite the “obvious differences / between each sort and type,” ultimately “we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.

* A quick plug: the Art Gallery of NSW currently has an exhibition named after Angelou’s famous collection of poetry, And Still I Rise, featuring a group of culturally diverse women artists living in Australia. It’s well worth a visit!”