At this period of the year the problems of sea-bathing become acute, some of them, perhaps, being affected by reminiscences of the customs of bygone years. I can well remember a time when the men would have thought it strange to don a bathing suit for their dip, and they were kept a very considerable distance from women bathers. A tall pole separated the two areas, and a no-man's land of a hundred and fifty yards stretched to either side of the pole.
The women's attire for swimming was not very practical, being upon the whole more voluminous than is now adjudged necessary for ordinary attire. The colour was generally a kind of red, and amorphous masses of what looked like old red sandstone cleft the waves. Nor did the wearers venture far out of their depth. For the most part, the shore was shriekingly fringed with what might well have been boiled lobsters engaged in a Lewis Carroll dance.
The bathing box has always been popular in Ireland, but not so the bathing machine, which was, I think, invented to cope with coasts such as those at Southend or Margate, where at low water miles of mud are succeeded by miles of shallows, and a conveyance to get the bather to deeper water is desirable.
The Irish Times, June 11th, 1931.