The fabulous stretch of hot weather in July prompted a return of the Sandycove of our childhood: long, hot, endless summer days that went on forever, where the concrete burned your feet and the togs were never off in between swims. The most important question was: is the tide in? And that first glimpse of the sea through the entrance to the old changing rooms on the way down Sandycove Avenue could make or break a day.
Some things never change. In this picture, Sadhbh Duffy (9) and Emily Foster-Ryan (10) are making the best of things, making the jump even though the tide is going out and the drop is getting higher and higher. Funny how kids never notice that; they just doggedly keep going back to the same place every time, even when the water is hardly up to their knees and every watching parent is cringing.
The girls had been jumping like little lemmings for what seemed likes hours, frozen in their swimsuits, having decided out of the blue this year that wetsuits are for wimps. They focused on jumping in and swimming around to “the ladder”, a rite of passage for all the children at Sandycove.
Their pals Eve (13) Sophie (8) and Lara Cotter (10) then arrived with their mum Sheenagh, and the whole cycle started again, the girls heading straight back to the same spot on the pier to jump. Eve had her iPad, a risky business near all that, but, far from trying to find a shady spot to resume communications with absent friends, she was trying to get the perfect shot. The girls were only too happy to oblige.
The shot was actually very hard to get, the girls having to jump very high for Eve to catch them in mid-air, framed against the beautiful turquoise of the sea. But she stuck to her guns and the girls rose (pardon the pun) to the occasion.
It provided pure Sandycove entertainment: laughing and giggling, jostling and pushing, all interspersed with some spectacular mishits and bad timings. Finally, the girls had enough of messing around and, like old professionals, jumped for joy.
