FEATURE: Old Dundalk swimming habits

My question a couple of weeks back about the location 'Kearney's Embankment' where local people used to swim in good weather seems to have aroused considerable interest in at least two different parts of the Town. The original question was inspired by a letter I received from a person who believed that it was part of the Navvy Bank where there once was a springboard but a more recent email I received from Charlie McCarthy has called that idea into question!

Charlie, whom I consider the foremost authority on anything to do with the Quay area, writes – 'I never heard any mention of that area, or any part of the Navvy Bank named as such'. He goes on to mention that, while there was a Kearney who owned a pub in Quay Street, he does not think he had any interests there (the Harbour front).

Charlie was further good enough to send me an old advertisement published in the local newspapers by the Dundalk Urban District Council in June 1906 about 'bathing'. Regarding this warning notice from the Council, Charlie points out --- 'The attached notice mentions a 'Kearney's Rampart' (which) was a well-known area above the Big Bridge, along the River, more or less behind what became St. Nicholas Avenue. It was regarded as one of the safe areas for swimming in the 1800s and early 1900s. It was along the river's edge of a field belonging to a man named Joseph Kearney from North Marsh who sold it to Patrick Rice, Bridge Street in 1904. There was a dispute between Rice and the locals over access to it and he put up a fence, cutting ìt off to the public. This dispute was settled and a waylay established so that the locals and townspeople could use it for swimming.'

The warning from the Urban Council published in 1906 is, in itself, very interesting for a number of reasons. It reads ---
'Notice as to Bathing.

The above-named Council hereby caution all persons against Bathing along the Fair Green, Slobland at St. Helena, or approaches to the Greenore Railway Bridge, owing to the danger existing at these places.

The Bathing Place recommended by the Council (for males only) is along the embankment known as Kearney's Rampart, on the south side of the Castletown River, between the Big Bridge and the Castletown Railway Bridge, which is considered safe and clean and has been used for Bathing by the public for over fifty years.

By Order, Mathew Comerford, Town Clerk. 1906

Town Hall, Dundalk, 12th June, 1906'

Apart from the archaic wording of the notice, it is interesting that the fairly newly established Dundalk Urban District Council (formed 1899) took an interest in the bathing habits of its citizens. Readers will note that there is no mention of pollution in the river, other than to suggest that the water is 'safe and clean' at this place, although there must have been considerable contamination of the water because of open sewers running into the Castletown at this period. I supposed the idea that there might have bacterial or virus infection in the river does not seem to have occurred to the Councillors who discussed the matter, even though there had been many reports of outbreaks serious epidemics in Dundalk for centuries, from things like typhoid, cholera and other diseases, probably due to contaminated water supplies.

Another interesting thing about the notice is that there is no mention of 'swimming' which, to me, would seem to indicate that not many people of the time were capable of swimming in deep water and would not venture into areas that were 'out of their depth'. On the other hand, it probably reflected the situation that few houses in Dundalk would have had baths and many might have washed themselves and their clothes, from time to time, in open streams and rivers.

Yet another unusual thing about the notice is that it states that the Bathing Place recommendation was 'for males only'. This would seem to indicate that women or girls were not welcome, although I seem to recall being told that there was a place, further up the river to Toberona, where women could bath in privacy. There also was a beach at Blackrock called 'The Ladies' Beach' where males were not allowed to intrude and this sort of exclusive female bathing place was common enough at Irish seaside towns up until about the Second World War.

In my own youth, the favourite summertime swimming place was off the pier at Gyles Quay where 'mixed bathing' was acceptable but social conventions had changed greatly by that time. Many of my readers will, no doubt, have pleasant recollections of bathing around Dundalk when the weather was fine. It is easy to understand, however, why the open air Swimming Pool at Blackrock became so popular for time after it opened in 1962. And why there was such enthusiasm for the building of an indoor pool in Dundalk towards the end of the last century!