{"id":249626,"date":"2025-12-24T18:31:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/249626\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T18:31:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:31:35","slug":"hundreds-brave-the-cold-in-belfast-to-make-a-splash-for-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/249626\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds brave the cold in Belfast to make a splash for charity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of <strong>swimmers<\/strong> dashed and danced into the <strong>sea<\/strong> for a<strong> charity dip<\/strong> at Helen\u2019s Bay in Co Down on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s Santa Splash started with carol singing and bell ringing before a warm-up session led by local fitness coaches Eamon Swail and Calvin Brennan.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.resized.co\/breaking-news\/eyJkYXRhIjoie1widXJsXCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL2ltYWdlLmFzc2V0cy5wcmVzc2Fzc29jaWF0aW9uLmlvXFxcL3YyXFxcL2ltYWdlXFxcL3Byb2R1Y3Rpb25cXFwvZWE1MWUxYWY5MWVjZTExY2YwZjg3Njc2ZmYxZTdmN2JZMjl1ZEdWdWRITmxZWEpqYUdGd2FTd3hOelkyTmpZMU56YzRcXFwvMi44Mjg4NTQzNS5qcGc_dz02NDBcIixcIndpZHRoXCI6XCI2NDBcIixcImhlaWdodFwiOlwiNDI3XCIsXCJkZWZhdWx0XCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL3d3dy5icmVha2luZ25ld3MuaWVcXFwvaVxcXC9ibi1ub2ltYWdlLnBuZ1wiLFwib3B0aW9uc1wiOntcIm91dHB1dFwiOlwiYXZpZlwiLFwicXVhbGl0eVwiOlwiNTVcIn19IiwiaGFzaCI6ImMzYWNlMTI1Mjc1MzlhOTAzNmI0ZTU4MjM2Y2ViMDhkMDViMzE0ZTYifQ==\/hundreds-brave-the-cold-in-belfast-to-make-a-splash-for-charity.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"People running into the water at Helen\u2019s Bay\" data-title=\"Christmas Eve swim \u2013 Helen\u2019s Bay\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Liam McBurney\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>People run into the water at Helen\u2019s Bay as take part of the annual Christmas Eve swim in aid of local charities (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>At 11am the Christmas Eve crowd raced into the cold water of Belfast Lough decked out in Santa hats, tinsel and elf ears.<\/p>\n<p>Among them was Agriculture Minister and local MLA and Mayor of Ards and North Down Councillor Gillian McCollum.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.resized.co\/breaking-news\/eyJkYXRhIjoie1widXJsXCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL2ltYWdlLmFzc2V0cy5wcmVzc2Fzc29jaWF0aW9uLmlvXFxcL3YyXFxcL2ltYWdlXFxcL3Byb2R1Y3Rpb25cXFwvMWE3NjhmZmZlYWQ5OGI0ZTE3NzQxOWU2YzIzYTNkYmFZMjl1ZEdWdWRITmxZWEpqYUdGd2FTd3hOelkyTmpZMk56ZzJcXFwvMi44Mjg4NTQ2NS5qcGc_dz02NDBcIixcIndpZHRoXCI6XCI2NDBcIixcImhlaWdodFwiOlwiNDI3XCIsXCJkZWZhdWx0XCI6XCJodHRwczpcXFwvXFxcL3d3dy5icmVha2luZ25ld3MuaWVcXFwvaVxcXC9ibi1ub2ltYWdlLnBuZ1wiLFwib3B0aW9uc1wiOntcIm91dHB1dFwiOlwiYXZpZlwiLFwicXVhbGl0eVwiOlwiNTVcIn19IiwiaGFzaCI6IjRlNTEwZDZjODQwMDRkOTc0NmYxODVlMmJiMGNjNzE4ZDg0YmRhNTEifQ==\/hundreds-brave-the-cold-in-belfast-to-make-a-splash-for-charity.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"Three women pose for a selfie in the sea during annual Santa Splash\" data-title=\"Christmas Eve swim \u2013 Helen\u2019s Bay\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Liam McBurney\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>The annual Christmas Eve dip is in aid of local charities (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s event is in aid of two charities, Dementia NI and the Air Ambulance Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of swimmers dashed and danced into the sea for a charity dip at Helen\u2019s Bay in Co&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-249626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115775977095897337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}