Kerry beer garden has 'thrown training off course' says extreme swimmer record holder

Ultra Marathon Swimmer, Nuala Moore, Dingle, County Kerry, on Pedlar's Coom, Conor Pass, with her dog LG, where she trains daily in the lake enclosed in the Mountain.Photo:Valerie O'Sullivan/story Anne Lucey

A world-renowned extreme open water and ice swimmer and Guinness World Record holder has claimed her training regime for new challenges was badly affected by the opening of a beer garden at a pub near her Co Kerry home.

Dingle-based swimmer, Nuala Moore, is among a group of local residents involved in a planning row with the owners of Bob Griffin’s Bar over an unauthorised beer garden at the back of the pub.

Ms Moore was among around a dozen locals who successfully objected to an application by EHD, the company operating the pub, for retention permission for the beer garden before Christmas.

Kerry County Council said allowing the continuing use of the rear of the premises as an outdoor seating and serving area would seriously injure the amenities of the area and depreciate the value of properties in the vicinity due to the noise and disturbance they generated.

In a split decision, the council granted Bob Griffin’s Bar, which is owned by Richard and Dawn Keane, retention permission for the change of use of the ground floor of the building on Strand Street to a public bar.

However, EHD subsequently lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála against the council’s ruling in relation to the beer garden.

'Our quality of life collapsed'

In a submission to the planning authorities, Ms Moore said her family’s life had been “hell” over the past two years as a result of noise coming from the beer garden which she claimed had become “the largest outdoor entertainment venue in Dingle” which could accommodate 450 people.

“Our quality of life collapsed,” said Ms Moore.

She also criticised Kerry County Council for failing to enforce planning conditions imposed on the pub with regard to noise levels, despite repeated complaints from neighbours.

Ms Moore, who holds two Guinness World Records for extreme swims from Russia to the US across the Bering Strait and the notorious Drake Passage, south of Cape Horn off South America, said the opening of the venue had an immediate detrimental effect on her sleeping patterns.

The swimmer said she had planned to swim from Dingle Bay around the Blasket Islands in the summer of 2019 but the project was “thrown completely off course” by her inability to focus on the training necessary to undertake such a huge challenge.

The Blasket Island. File picture Dan Linehan

Ms Moore claims she was often driven to get out of her bed and to walk down to the bar in her pyjamas to complain that the noise from the beer garden was intolerable and “entirely incompatible with sleep.” 

She claimed the impact of noise levels, which became even louder after pubs were allowed to reopen after a lockdown in 2021, had led to a serious decline in her physical and mental health.

Locals have also expressed concern at the hazard of having a smoking area of the pub close to neighbouring residences.

Ms Moore said she had been unable to restart her swimming regime since last summer and attempt challenges she had set herself in 2019.

“My open water swimming career has been at a standstill for three years because of the injurious noise,” said Ms Moore.

Another local, Professor John Fenton, an ear, nose and throat consultant at the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick, claimed the impact of unrelenting noise from the pub could result in significant health issues.

The pub’s owners have promised to install a noise barrier after a noise monitoring report showed excessive noise levels were recorded from the pub after 8pm and at weekends.

It is understood the beer garden has been closed since shortly before Christmas.

EHD claims the pub’s outdoor seating area is “wholly consistent” with the character of Dingle as a major tourist town.

It urged An Bord Pleanála to consider the “unique and absolutely crucial role” that tourism played in the livelihoods of a significant number of residents of Dingle.

The company claimed its beer garden is “appropriately scaled”, while also pointing out that the Government had encouraged outdoor dining over the past few years, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A ruling on the appeal by An Bord Pleanála is due in early May 2022.