"It's actually not that bad", I gasped, as I bobbed up from under the semi-frigid water. For it is not an Irish holiday unless you're forcing yourself into semi-frigid water and telling yourself it's practically the Bahamas. There was the whole Atlantic Ocean between me and the West Indies in Summer 2021 though, and I was emerging not from 30-degree crystal waters, but from the 14-degree paradise of the Belmullet tidal pool, Co Mayo. It was a semi-sunny day, the air temperature was decidedly Not Bad and the tidal pool was like paradise to our hungover heads.
“We need something like this in Dublin,” we cried, as the locals rolled their eyes and deduced we must be the gang staying beyond on Erris Head with the 57 bottles of wine, forcing the children to appreciate the sheep. Even the most cold-averse were persuaded to get in and appreciate the healing powers of the sea, but without the scourge of sand, seaweed and jellyfish.
“Staycations” and sea-swimming both shot up in popularity during the pandemic, and the sad lack of the likes of Belmullet tidal pool in the capital and around the country was highlighted. The white-water rafting facility proposed for Dublin’s George’s Dock had hit the headlines to much scoffing in late 2019, and as lockdowns progressed, it became a bigger and bigger joke before being shelved late last year.
The 'best' spots are located in affluent areas and the hobby of 'sea-swimming' carries cultural capital
It had been argued that white-water rafting on artificial rapids would bring the tourists streaming into Dublin to fill all those hotels. White-water rafting on artificial rapids is the absolute last thing I want to do on a city break, when instead I could be trying not to be too obvious about speeding through the second half of a museum so I can get on to the important activity of sampling local delicacies while people-watching.
Petitions have been set up calling for the €25 million earmarked for the white-water rafting facility to be diverted to build public swimming baths at George’s Dock and other locations instead. London has numerous outdoor swimming options including ponds and heated and non-heated lidos, some with facilities to encourage swimmers to spend the entire day. These pools attract locals above tourists and such consideration is hugely lacking in Dublin, a city which seems increasingly obsessed with pumping visitors through an airport-Book-of-Kells-brewery-distillery pipeline. There is plenty in Dublin for tourists to do. What about the people who live here?
As someone who swims semi-regularly in the sea in Dublin I feel an element of elitist gatekeeping still exists. The “best” spots are located in affluent areas and the hobby of “sea-swimming” carries cultural capital. I often feel out of place when I visit Sandycove or Seapoint to swim, and my extremely modest rural upbringing means my ears are fine-tuned to conversations that are completely alien to me. It’s often obvious that some of my fellow swimmers have just tripped down from their adjacent homes for a dip, and my eyes gleam with envy as I scurry back to the car to put the heating on.
We need more of these facilities, and we need them quickly, before the steam runs out of the uptick in swimming the pandemic encouraged
I feel ridiculous having an inferiority complex about something as accessible as getting in the sea, especially living, as we do, on an island. In 2020 at the Forty Foot swimming spot at Sandycove, some signs appeared that said “no Dryrobes or Dryrobe types” were welcome. The sign points to the strata that exist within those who swim, from the hard nuts who’ve been getting in sun, hail, or shine for the past 40 years, to the relative newbies in their expensive post-swim coats laden down with coffees and seemingly endless time to chat. Nothing enrages a hard nut old-timer more than frivolous chat while wearing a Dryrobe, except maybe an outsider teenager who’s travelled across the city on the Dart to access the joy of flinging themselves into the sea with their friends.
The same teenagers fling themselves into the water at George’s Dock anyway, so why not give them a pool? We need more of these facilities, and we need them quickly, before the steam runs out of the uptick in swimming the pandemic encouraged.
The bracing dips are both ritual and medicinal in colder weather, and a joyous communal experience when the summer sun shines. In Belmullet I was struck by the apparent simplicity of the operation. Yes, it obviously costs money to pay for maintenance and peak-time lifeguards, but speaking to locals it seems that cleaning the pool is a voluntary effort, and the facility is in use year-round.
There are amazing natural swimming spots in Derrynane, Kilkee, Hook Head and the many glorious beaches around Ireland’s coast. But when you look at the success of Belmullet, the diving platform stretching into the Atlantic from Salthill, and the warren of changing spots around the Forty Foot, it’s clear we could be doing much more to encourage the community feeling of going for a dip. It’s actually not that bad!