You can now register for the 2012 Dip in the Nip at 4 different locations around Ireland on June 24th! Just click on the button to the right and it will bring you straight to the registration page. You can also set up an online fundraising page by clicking on the iDonate button.

I got quite a lot of emails in response to my last blog Ordinary People doing Extraordinary Things. This is one of them, from Audrey Maguire, who did the Dip in the Nip in 2010. This is her story:

“This year I celebrate my 50th birthday and to date there are two extradionary experiences I have had.

The first occured on my 47th birthday when I won a prize from Dunnes Stores of Neven Maguire and his team coming to cook and serve dinner in my house. The prize was initally for eight persons. However when I told Ms Margaret Heffernan and Neven that I intended to turn into a fundraising dinner for the ARC Cancer Centre whose services I had utilised during my cancer treatment and afterwards, the dinner guests numbers increased to 12 persons.

It was a truly memorable experience as we turned it into a black tie dinner and to have it take place in my ordinary semi detached house was unique on the night of my birthday. I even ran a raffle to raise more money. The food, wine and champagne were supplied by Dunnes Stores the tablewear, tables, and pre dinner drink reception  and chair where supplied by Dunboyne Castle Hotel where I worked at the time. My evening dress was supplied by Balbriggan Bridal  free of charge.

Myself and my friends had a truly amazing dining experience and I raised £2500 euro which Dunnes Stores generously matched. For my 50th birthday this year my self and two friends are treating ourselves to an overnight and dinner in Neven Maguire’s restaruant in Blacklion and no doubt we will recall our unique experience in 2007.

The second thing I did was  in aid of the Irish Cancer Society which was your Dip in the Nip. I had heard about it on the late Gerry Ryans radio show and heard you speak about the experience pre and post the event. I took part in 2010.

I will admit I was exrtemely nervous on my car journey to the arranged point Dunmoran Beach and queried my sanity in taking part. I could not believe the amount of people in the car park, men and women, and the air of excitement and warmth was wonderful.

I went down to the beach and the camraderie amongst the women was terrific a case of sisters doing it for themselves. It did not matter what size you were, cellulite thighs, had scars from surgery or had undergone a masectomy, were a cancer survivor or were doing it in memory of someone who was undergoing treatment or had passed away.

As the countdown started I did feel awkward but as the towel dropped and we ran into the icy waves I could not believe the sense of exhilaration, freedom, laughter and emotional tears: a truly unique and wonderful experience.

Alas I could not take part last year. However this year the date is already noted in my diary and I will be back with a few friends.”

And of course the date for this years Midsummer Dip in the Nip is Sunday, 24th June, and will be happening at four locations nationwide! Watch this space.

A week or so ago, I was at the launch of the 50:50 Group, a voluntary organisation set up to work towards gender parity in Irish politics by the year 2020. There were a number of speakers drawn from various groups around the country which included  Fiona Buckley, the co-founder of 50:50; Eilish Corcoran, The Womens Manifesto Project in Longford; Helen Rochford Brennan of the Western Development Commission, to name but a few – all drawn from different backgrounds and with different perspectives on the question of gender parity in Irish politics.

But this is not a blog about politics. The reason I mention it is because of something one of the speakers said, and which struck a chord among many of the audience, mostly female. The speaker commented that she was ‘looking at a group of brilliant women, any of whom could stand for election in this country’. A member of the audience responded that being referred to as ‘brilliant’ made her feel under pressure, and less likely to consider entering political life, for fear of not living up to expectation. There were murmurings of assent, and it was clear that nobody there was comfortable self-identifying as ‘brilliant’.

I thought about this afterwards. Very few people – male or female – self-identify as brilliant. Yet very often we will refer to others as brilliant, often for doing something that we are well capable of doing ourselves. Why? I know when I first started organising the Dip, the compliments and the plaudits made me uncomfortable. I would brush them aside with a comment that really, it wasn’t me who was brilliant/fabulous/marvellous, but rather the people doing the Dip. We know that Irish people are not the best at receiving compliments – we feel we’re asking for a belt around the back of the head if accept it as truth! But even to ourselves, we find it difficult to acknowledge when we do something well – we dismiss it with a wave of our hand and a brisk ‘it’s no big deal’.

So I started thinking about how we might start to acknowledge our own brilliance – what Marianne Williamson called our deepest fear.  Could we make a start by thinking of ourselves as ordinary, but acknowledging that something we have done might be extraordinary? Because I certainly think that doing the Dip in the Nip is something extraordinary for most of the people who do it, and all for very different reasons. To get naked with a bunch of strangers, and run into the North Atlantic – in IRELAND! – is truly extraordinary. We are a nation consumed by body hang-ups. We harbour a belief that because we are not tanned and toned like our mediterranean cousins (who may be tanned, but trust me, they’re not always toned) our bodies could not possibly be beautiful and therefore should be kept under wraps except in the privacy of our bedrooms.

For virtually all of the Dippers, their first Dip was the first time that they had ever skinny dipped, even alone. And many of them, unless they are doing another Dip, may never skinny dip with others again. And it doesn’t matter if they have the perfect body or if they bear the scars of cancer or any other disease. Divesting themselves of all clothing and running screaming and laughing into the sea with other imperfect bodies is to stretch comfort boundaries probably beyond anything any of them thought themselves capable of, and that takes real courage.

So, Dippers: if you cannot see your own extraordinariness, then at least take a bow for taking your courage in both hands and doing something extraordinary.