THE LAST RESORT 2:/Ballybunion, Co Kerry:Dismal weather and cheap sun holidays may be dampening Ballybunion's appeal, but a seaweed bath, heaving cabaret and stunning walk prove it hasn't lost its touch, writes Róisín Ingle.
Ballybunion sits on the northern coast of Co Kerry and smells and sounds the way all seaside resorts should. Walking down the tatty main street, the aroma of deep-fried everything mingles with vinegar, a comforting whiff cut through by the salty smell of popcorn and the Atlantic Ocean. The neglected amusement arcades - they don't even have bumper cars any more - hum with the sound of soon-to-be-lost coins jingling in miniature plastic buckets. In the charmingly retro Sundae Shop, where a Crunchie bar is crumbled over your butterscotch-laden "Golden Banana Boat", small children plead in urgent voices with their parents for ice cream with extra chocolate sauce. Yes, this is the sound and smell of summer even if we are all standing in the afternoon drizzle with our waterproofs.
The place used to be buzzing, that's what all the locals say. In seasons past, the main street would have been throbbing with holiday-makers. "You'd hardly get down the street for the people, 20 years ago," says a woman working behind the bar in JD's. Most agree this is the worst summer yet, both in business and weather terms. Cheap holidays have Irish people opting for Puerto Ventura instead of BallyB. Even those who come take a house for a week now when they used to take one for a month.
And yet there is still a steady stream people around enjoying themselves. The SuperValu is full of caravanners stocking up on essentials. The impressively modern playground near the strand is keeping children amused while parents sit on benches. The recently opened and long-awaited health and leisure centre - complete with jacuzzi and juice bar - is a godsend for parents who have bad weather and bored children to contend with. The Americans in their Aertex, with tees stuck behind their ears like cigarettes are down in huge numbers at the famous elevated golf course. And even in this weather, down on the Blue Flag beaches, in the shadow of those dramatic cliffs, whole families are playing around rockpools and eating sandy sandwiches.
For these visitors, the weather is not the point. It's all about recapturing what they experienced as children. They are not here for a sun tan but to pass on the magical summers of their youth to a new generation wielding plastic buckets and spades.
Kathleen Hennessy, who spent several summers here as a child, is looking after her sister's children for the morning. She learnt to swim on the beach, has fond memories of fish and chips from the Eagle Lodge and of spending whole days on the strand. "I just remember when I was a child there was a great buzz about the place," she says. "We'd go for a swim early in the morning and then my Mum would come down with bowls of cornflakes for us and we'd stand wrapped in towels shivering while we ate them. We brought the kids down yesterday and they went for a swim and had an ice cream, they stood there happy as anything wrapped in their towels and it just felt great that they could have the same experience we did. It's just those simple pleasures."
FOR ADULTS IN search of more sophisticated thrills, the nightlife of Ballybunion was always an attraction. Everyone mentions the now defunct Atlantic which housed a roller disco and concert venue where Boney M and Thin Lizzy once played. The Tinteán Theatre has been a welcome addition and this month presented John B Keane's play about the place, The Buds of Ballybunion. There's a few decent restaurants to choose from but McMunn's is the one that seems to be pulling in the most diners. The golfers decamp here in droves for dry martinis or Manhattans complete with paper parasols. Gary and Una run the show, serving up locally caught scallops or panseared ray wing while traditional music can be heard here every night.
In Badger Kelly's bar on the main street, a sizeable audience has gathered for the kind of seaside cabaret that's a staple of Ballybunion nightlife. Each Wednesday night, "Shaun O'Dowd featuring Hanora" perform on the small stage to an enthusiastic crowd who kick off their shoes and jive as though their very existence depend on it. The air smells faintly of fresh sweat and beer. There's no preening or posing, just good old-fashioned, kick-up-your-heels dancing and the occasional, unashamed, prodding of exposed female flesh by generously bellied men.
Shaun O'Dowd, you may remember, used to be with a band called Ding A Ling back in his dance hall days. Hanora is now his musical sidekick.
The first thing you notice when O'Dowd bounds on stage with his array of musical backing tracks is that his hair is just as big, if not bigger, than it was when he burst onto the music scene in the mid-1970s. It's a brown and wondrous bouffant, that stays in place even as he boogies through Dancin' in the Street and C'mon Everybody.
Hanora, the younger of the pair by some years, is a powerhouse, striding around the room encouraging people up to dance and hopping up on the speakers arms aloft. The punters cannot get enough. Siobhan Ryan, a teenager with Cystic Fibrosis, has come with her Mum Anne-Marie and Dad Peter. They come to BallyB every year from Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, usually with all their eight children.
"We love it, the whole family does, it's the best place for a holiday," says Siobhan, as O'Dowd informs us that he has chills and they are multiplyin'. Siobhan's Dad Peter says the Ballybunion air is good for his daughter and she certainly looks happy as O'Dowd launches into the inevitable You Raise Me Up.
O'Dowd and Hanora earn their money, you'd be worn out just looking at them. A lie-in is definitely in order the following morning and then it's down to the strand. Ballybunion has three beaches, the Men's Strand, the Ladies' Strand and the Nun's Strand, which is overlooked by a convent. Reliable urban myth has it that a priest called Fr Behan would sit up at the castle green which divides the strands, ensuring that men and women bathed separately. On the Ladies' Strand, Collins's Hot Seaweed Baths is still operating as it heads for its centenary. Mary Mulvihill's grandparents ran it before her. Now her husband is up every morning at 5am with the tractor collecting seaweed from "the black rocks", which is put in hot baths of seawater.
Serving coffee in pretty patterned cups, she confirms the season has been a bit of a wash-out but it hasn't put off women and men of all ages coming for their seaweed bath with gallons of hot sea water. I try one out in the interest of research and can confirm my skin tingled with good health afterwards, even if the viscous oils which oozed from the "serrated rack" seaweed took a little getting used to.
PJ O'SULLIVAN (76), fresh from a seaweed bath, says he's been coming to Ballybunion for 65 years. "It's lovely, not commercial at all. You just come down to the beach and watch the world go by, no matter about the weather," he says.
Everyone here raves about the cliff walk, so before heading home you almost feel obliged to go for a stroll. A wooden sign sets the tone for this haven for bird watching and dolphin spotting. "You are about to embark on the spectacular cliff path walk where the grandeur of the ocean, the magnificent cliff scenery, the fresh and invigorating Atlantic breezes combine with Ballybunion's champagne air to offer you a truly exhilarating experience.".
No pressure, then. I have the path to myself and it doesn't disappoint. The views really are magnificent, particularly the Nine Daughters' Hole rock formation where the surf gurgles in spectacular fashion way down below. It's a beautiful walk, the kind you'd do every day if you were here for a week. Whatever the weather.
Ballybunion, where the Shannon meets the Atlantic, next parish New York, may not be the resort she once was, but this could be easily fixed.
A few licks of paint here and there, some new signage on the shops on the main street, more parking, a one-way system and an amusement arcade that actually has bumper cars perhaps. But while shabby in parts, BallyB still screams summer. She's like your favourite older relative who always had the best stash of biscuits even if her party dresses had seen better days. You may find yourself wishing she was a bit more glamorous but you'll keep coming back.
Next Friday, The Last Resort: Rosita Boland in Bundoran, Co Donegal
