Sir, – During the Celtic Tiger era, a journalist commented on the fact that apparently we had more golf courses in the country than playgrounds. Local authorities rose to the challenge and now we have wonderful playgrounds in most of our parks.
Covid inspired many people to take up sea and lake swimming, and enthusiasm hasn’t waned. It’s become a national pastime – summer and winter.
We saw Daniel Wiffen performing magnificently in the Olympic open water race. The children of the nation are watching in awe, while indoor pools have long waiting lists for swimming lessons.
My challenge now, to our local authorities nationally, is to copy the Belmullet tidal pool (“I still feel like an interloper when it comes to sea swimming in Belmullet”, March 27th), which was constructed at a fraction of the cost of the infamous “baths with no baths” in Dún Laoghaire, and build more of these pools up and down our seashores and lakeshores.
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As an island nation, full of lakes, shouldn’t we aspire to have entries in the open water swimming in LA? – Yours, etc,
VALERIE JUDGE,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.