Almost 160 years of a bathing tradition came to a sudden halt last week when the town council was instructed to board up access to the ‘49’s swimming area at the foot of the lighthouse. The instruction came from town manager, Patricia Power, on receipt of a risk assessment report she commissioned from the Irish Water Safety Association that deemed the spot unsafe.
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The decision has caused considerable anger amongst those who use the facility, not alone for its ramifications but also for the total absence of notification that a report had been commissioned at all.

Reports findings

The safety survey was conducted over two visits last February. Amongst its 24-page report the following concerns were stipulated: the access pathway adjacent to the lighthouse is in poor repair and “could cause trips and falls.” It was also deemed unsatisfactory for emergency access; the ‘catwalk’ approach to the diving board has no handrails and “would be an entrapment area for swimmers if the tide rises”; the diving area is “unsafe” with the diving board (which Youghal Town Council have traditionally installed) considered a risk at three metres above low tide; submerged rocks serve further dangers. The area generally is considered susceptible to “tidal surges.”  A lack of signage and a need for further lifebuoys, properly located, are also outlined.

Additionally the report notes that a closed-off viewing area -that had served as a second access point- is dangerously rusted underneath and needs restoration or demolishing. (This section, along with a second viewing area at Moll Goggin’s Corner has been closed for years now and Cork County Council is showing no indication of addressing the issue at all.)

Ms Power referred inquiries to the town clerk Liam Ryan, who said the manager commissioned the report following complaints she received. However he did “not have the information” as to the nature and number of complaints and with the town manager not commenting directly, that relevant factor remains a mystery. Perhaps the answer will be sought and provided at some upcoming town council meeting.

Meanwhile, given that the town council serviced the area with its diving board, Mr Ryan did not seem overtly enthusiastic with developments. However, on a brighter note he observed that, “now that the issues have been highlighted, we can try to address them.”

Over protection?

While there is a general acceptance that the area held some hazard, support for the closure is pretty thin on the ground. The relatively clandestine manner by which entire episode from survey to report to closure was conducted, accounts in part for people’s resentment.

Secondly, there is a sense of ‘health and safety’ losing the run of itself. Especially amongst generations that played hide & seek in deserted building sites, before the culture of ‘fall and sue’ stepped off some well-gritted disembarking plank from America, there is a growing resentment towards the inexorable sanitisation of life. People, adults, feel they are being treated like cattle –and imbecilic ones at that- with a lack of consultation that is allied to a growing plethora of rules and regulations being imposed on them by distant civil servants. They wonder as to whither went personal responsibility and, by and large, they want it back.

Yet authority can claim to be merely responding to the times. For, as the town clerk noted, there is a legal profession willing to accommodate those who will initiate litigation at the drop of a brick, including a judiciary (answering only to itself) that seems to lean towards such litigants regardless of any trampling on common sense. “Once the report recommended closing access, the manager had really no option but to do so,” he states.

Criticisms

The diving rocks, or ‘49’s,’ as the area is known, arose from the establishment of Youghal lighthouse itself, in 1852 “The materials to build it had to be transported by sea and so a landing area was established,” says Green Party town councillor Liam Burke, who has bathed in the area for 50 years.

Mr Burke argues that there has never been a serious accident at the rocks in living memory. “The lifeboat has never once been summonsed, nor the council sued for injury, “which is more than can be said for the unprotected quay walls and the greater beach area,” he adds. He is also critical of the survey being conducted in February and would like a second survey conducted “during maximum usage and in summer conditions.”

Others dismayed by the issue include Youghal Mayor Sandra McLellan and town and Cork county Cllr Barbara Murray. Both have described the closure as ‘health and safety gone mad.’ The mayor fears a greater risk will ensue should people be tempted to access the area by other methods, while Cllr Murray angrily demands, “where next are they going to close up a scenic area in a town dependent on tourism?!”

Also unhappy amongst the 30 or so regulars who availed of the once male-dominated, sun-trapping idyll is a local lady who had planned to have some of her wedding photos shot there next August. She is reportedly determined that the location will feature in her wedding album! One fears that the new bride may be denied her dream of love on the rocks however.