Call for review of licence to men-only swimming club

Councillors in Dún Laoghaire have agreed to ask the Minister for Finance to review a 1937 licence given to a bathing association that explicitly rules out women members.

The Sandycove Bathers' Association operates at the Forty-Foot Bathing Place in Sandycove, made famous by James Joyce in Ulysses.

The area had been an exclusively male bathing place up to the 1970s.

And while women can now swim there, they cannot be members of the association and cannot use the changing huts which are owned by the association.

The licence, a copy of which was circulated at last night’s Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council meeting, was granted by the then minister for finance Seán McEntee.

It included permission given to the bathing association to erect a sign stating "Gentleman's Bathing Place Only".

Changing shelter
Cllr Jane Dillon Byrne (Labour) welcomed a plan to build a new changing shelter with showers at nearby Sandycove Harbour.

It would be open in the next few weeks to “all-comers” with “no doors, locks and keys”.

She said at the Forty-Foot it seemed “concepts of a Victorian bathing area still prevailed”. This was contrary to gender legislation.

The Forty-Foot was “renowned in song and literature” and the council could no longer take “a hands-off approach”, she said.

Cllr Melissa Halpin (People Before Profit) said it “beggared belief” that the situation could be going on “around the corner” from county hall.

Cllr Niamh Bhreathnach (Labour) said the issue was “a challenging problem”.

She suggested Minister for Finance Michael Noonan be asked to "revoke or amend" the licence.

Environment director Richard Shakespeare said he did not disagree with anything that was said and would write to the Minister.

In other business, Mr Shakespeare made it clear that the council would not be organising a St Patrick’s Day event next year despite support for it from some councillors.

He told proposer Cllr Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) the idea “we throw a few people up on the back of a trailer and everything will be fine and dandy” was not realistic.

It would cost up to €250,000, he said.

'Overworked colleagues'
He suggested Mr Richmond set up a community group, chair it himself, and then seek a grant for it, instead of "pushing me and my overworked colleagues".

“It is not a good idea,” he said.

Mr Richmond said that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was the only local authority in the country that did not have some form of event to mark the St Patrick’s national holiday.

The matter was referred to the council’s cultural strategic policy committee for further discussion.