For the second year in a row, Waterford City & County Council has dug out a pool at Lismore Strand, opening the area to those young and old to swimming over the summer months.
Furthermore, Irish Water Safety is to hold week-long swimming lessons at the strand during August.
A Save Our Strand campaign was organised in Lismore last year and it successfully lobbied the council, through a petition, to dig out a pool at the strand for the first time in years. The council also gave a commitment last year to dig out the pool each summer going forward.
Swimming at the strand is a tradition that goes back generations, and Evelyn Coady of the Save Our Strand campaign said everyone in Lismore and West Waterford is delighted that the strand has once again been dug out and that swimming lessons are being prepared.
SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN
“It’s a tradition going back forever, for generations. They started digging it out when there was a big scout jamboree in Lismore way back. That was the first time they developed the place in the sense that they concreted quite a large area up there, they dug out the pool so people could swim, and then they dug it out every year after that. But at some point then they decided they wouldn’t anymore.
“Last year we ran a campaign, which was hugely successful. It hadn’t been dug out with years and prior to that it would have been dug out annually and there would have been Irish Water Safety lessons down there as well, but all that was gone so we ran a campaign. We went door to door with a petition, we couldn’t believe how successful it was, it was incredible.
“People who would have used it way back, from everywhere, were contacting us and many said it was extraordinary.”
“So in the end the council were nearly forced to dig it out last year and they did give us a commitment, which we looked for as well, that they would dig it out every year going forward.”
As well as being a long-running tradition in the town, Ms Coady said that swimming in the strand is much safer than swimming in the River Blackwater itself. While not all young people may be into sports like GAA or soccer, she added, the opening up on the strand for swimming again this summer gives another option to those on their summer holidays.
LESSONS
Irish Water Safety lessons at the strand pool will take place between Monday, August 1st and Friday, August 5th. For enquiries, contact 089-4617565.
