Paul Leahy, Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow
Name: Paul Leahy
Address: Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow
Dwelling: Scandinavian-style detached house
Here since: 1960
I lived in Dublin until I was 14. My family were in the drapery business, but they closed it in 1960 and then we moved down here. We had a holiday home here. My family owned the land since the late 1920s, and this house was built in 1938. We used to come here for our holidays, so it felt like I was going on a permanent vacation.
My land is directly on the beach, and I have a small caravan park that I run with my wife, Diane, called the Dunes. The sand dunes block my view of the beach, but my house is just 100 yards from the beach; it's lovely. The people own their own mobile homes, and we know them now for two generations, some of them, and they know each other very well, too. They buy the homes, and we connect them to water and electricity. It's what Brittas is famous for, and people really enjoy coming back.
The change when summer comes isn't as dramatic as it used to be. It used to be very quiet in the winter, and then on the first day of July there was a dramatic, sudden change - more people and more traffic - and on the first day of September it would all go quiet again. It was a weird sensation. Now the change isn't as dramatic; there are more people all the time.
The holiday-making isn't as intense as it used to be. People's patterns have changed. Before, you could count on the months of July and August being busy, whereas now people go abroad for vacations, and come here occasionally. Also, the mother and children used to spend all their time here (the father used to go back to work during the week), but now both parents are working, so that is another change.
The proximity to Dublin, and the great seaside, that's what make Brittas popular. There's a more rural atmosphere here in the pubs and so on. Dublin people, especially families who have been coming here for the past three generations, interact with the local people. You have three generations of Dublin people and three generations of local people who know each other quite well. They know each other's fathers and grandfathers. The first thing they do when they come down is ask about their local friends here.
It's busier during the winter as well. Lots of people move down to the area permanently. They are commuters, or they might have got a job in Arklow or Wicklow. Then they become part of the community, and get involved in sports facilities or parent-teacher associations and things like that. They become a little more rural, and the rural people maybe get a little more urban, too.
• In conversation with Davin O'Dwyer