John Connolly is a retired Primary School Head Teacher with over 40 years lifesaving experience as a voluntary and professional lifeguard and lifesaving teacher.

He is Honorary Chief Executive Officer of the Lifesaving Foundation having previously been both RLSS IRELAND Branch President and Branch Secretary. John has been awarded Honorary Life Membership of both Royal Life Saving Society UK and of the Royal Life Saving Commonwealth Society for his services to lifesaving. He was the 2012 recipient of The Ireland Medal.

He conducts research into a number of drowning related topics such as Suicide by Drowning, Irish Police Rescues, Foreign Holiday Drownings, Why Swimmers Drown and has created a drowning/rescue analysis matrix under the title of the C Zones. He has promoted the concepts that some swimmers drown because they are overcome by the number of new experiences they have to cope with following a sudden and unexpected clothed entry into cold open water (The First Time Problem) or having swum to where they think they are safe they find that they cannot exit the water (The Exit Problem).

John has published a number of papers, contributed to a number of books, and spoken at international conferences on these and other topics.

The Lifesaving Foundation Webpage and Facebook

Follow John on: LinkedIN

Picture: John Connolly being presented with the 2012 Ireland Medal Parchment by Ireland’s Garda Commissioner (Police Chief) in the presence of his wife and daughters.