Michael Moynihan: Can Cork afford to not splash out on new swimming facilities?

Children splashing around at the Lee Baths, Carrigrohane Road, Cork in 1951. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

It’s now two years since I rang Niall Kenny about his plan to get us all swimming in the Lee, and I thought it would be worth chasing him up again.

I have my reasons: for one, plans for a lido in the heart of Dublin city seem to be hardening into something approaching reality. Last week drawings of a facility planned for George’s Dock were released.

Also, baths at Dún Laoghaire were reopened a few days ago after a lengthy period of dereliction.

More splashy times for the capital. But as a female relative once said: “That’s great news for you, but what does it mean for me?”

Cue the phone call to Niall.

“It’s a help to us, absolutely,” he told me when I mentioned the facilities in Dublin.

“It raises awareness of the possibility of creating a lido, of swimming in general, all of those things.

“Outside of George’s Dock and Dún Laoghaire, the Clontarf baths are open to the public in midwinter for swimming and training. Winter swimming is very much in vogue at the moment and that would help our cause.

“It’s not limited to Dublin, either. In Limerick, the council has been approached by a group led by Mark Dempsey to reopen the Corbally baths, so they’re working on that.

“If George’s Dock gets up and running it’s a good location. All I know about Dún Laoghaire is that it was a historic site, a location, which is always a benefit.”

Like the old Lee Baths?

“If the Lee Baths were there to be repurposed I’d be all for it because you’d have a site which already exists, though I’d doubt the (Kingsley) hotel would move at this stage.”

Fair enough. Enough of the evenhandedness, though. Where are we at on Leeside?

“We’re still hunting around to say ‘this will be our site or that will be our site’. Our position is that we’ve done our feasibility study with Malachy Walsh Partners and (Cork) City Hall.

That’s done and it’s with the council at the moment internally. It’s not that they’re sitting on it, but it’ll be January or February until we get a sense of what’s next

“The next logical step for us is a business plan, so at present, it’s a matter of biding our time, but realistically we’d be looking at piggy-backing our way onto a brownfield site.

“With the CMATS [Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy] I know there are plans for redevelopment within the city, so if we can tie our plan into that then hopefully we’ll get there.

“We’re closer. And there’s still enthusiasm from the council, which is great.”

Is that significant? Cork City Council gets it in the ear often enough, but Kenny praises their input: “Absolutely, they’ve helped us in every way, shape or form they could, the internal bodies and departments have pointed to what would work and what wouldn’t in various ways, while they’ve also contributed externally.

“Our experience with the council has been very positive.”

An invaluable plan

The notion of a lido is self-explanatory, but Kenny points out that even a slightly more ambitious plan would be invaluable.

“The ideal would be to provide a community set-up, a place where the whole family can come together.

“There’s a great example in Brighton, where planning permission has been given for a project, Sea Lanes, which will have a 50m pool alongside the beach.

“In addition to that, there’ll be units alongside that — a bicycle repair unit, a surf shop, a cafe and so on. It’s also right next to a stop on the train line.

“That kind of centre would work so well here. You could cycle to this particular spot — or get the train —  hop out and have your swim, then go for a coffee and have your bike fixed if it needs that, a yoga class, whatever. In Cork that would pull in the cycling community, walkers if it’s on a walking route...”

The irony is that the Lee Baths could have been the focus of that kind of project, but it shut down in 1986.

People swimming at the Lee Baths in July 1935.

“It’s interesting to look back now — the rationale used back in the '80s was that people were going on foreign holidays, and warm-water swimming, so what would you need a public, unheated pool for?

It was nonsense, but it was an excuse to cut budgets, and once they’re cut then you’re into a self-fulfilling cycle. 

"The budget cut means maintenance isn’t carried out, and then people don’t want to use the facility because it’s not being maintained — so they are going to Spain or wherever for warm-weather swimming.

“Plus, there was an attitude in Cork of ‘hey, we’re on the coast anyway, why would we need a pool?’ if people want to swim.  And when Limerick opened a 50m pool there were even suggestions by some people that elite Cork swimmers could go and train there.”

Clearly, Cork hasn’t done itself any favours in the past, but where would a new centre like this go?

“Look at all the developments being planned — down around the Docklands, over on Tivoli where a new town, basically, is the long-term aim when the Port of Cork moves to Ringaskiddy.

“You’re talking about thousands and thousands of people, but what are those people going to do for recreation?

"Is there an assumption that they’ll get up in the morning and go to work and then just come home, have their dinner, and go to bed?

“It’s easy to say they’ll all be cyclists, but where would a bike fit in some of those small apartments? That means some other outlet would be needed. Speed walking?”

50m pool

Kenny points out that a two-acre plot in that area could accommodate a 50m pool like the one in the University of Limerick, with a hall, a gym, and all the facilities required.

“There are any number of reports on the long term health benefits for the country of facilities like this.

“But what’s particularly frightening here and now is the sheer lack of swimming facilities in Cork.

“For instance, the main swimming clubs in Cork have rolling waiting lists of kids that run into the hundreds. That means hundreds of kids who can’t learn how to swim and when they get too old for the lists, they have to be dropped from them. 

"But the next cohort comes in to replace them and they don’t get off the waiting list and into the club either.

“The result is hundreds of kids who can’t swim because it’s impossible to get pool time, and we don’t have a big pool that can accommodate large numbers.

“I understand that over 50 primary schools book into the UL pool for lessons — from as far away as Tipperary — but because they have that big pool those groups can be accommodated.

“There are other activities — water polo, scuba diving training — which can’t be done either. But with the new developments coming there’s a chance to get these facilities in now, at the right time.”

Can Cork do that? Can Cork afford not to?