River swimming booms during Kilkenny's long, hot summer

Warm weather conditions this summer have seen a surge in attendance across all five of Kilkenny’s traditional bathing areas, says Darragh Mahon, Water Safety Development Officer at Kilkenny County Council.

The five areas – the Bleach Road Weir, Bishops Meadows, Inistioge, Graiguenamanagh, and the Thomastown Weir Pool – are supervised by lifeguards and tested periodically for water quality.

This summer, there are 23 lifeguards working in five-hour shifts across the five locations. In response to the influx of bathers, the council has increased the number of lifeguards on duty and extended supervision hours to 8.30pm (previously 6.30pm) at popular areas.

This is lifeguard Louise McInerney’s fourth summer supervising Kilkenny’s bathing areas.

“We've never obviously had a summer like this before, so [it] kind of was a bit of a change for us as well,” she said. “The crowds that we had at all five spots that we’re in – we've never had anything like that before.”

She explained that bathing areas reach their busiest in the evenings after work, when there can be 30 to 40 people in the water at a time, continuing: “There are some days, especially in the Weir in town, [when] there'd be over 100 swimmers each day, like in the five hours.”

Mr Mahon noted that: “typical rescues now that lifeguards have to make are people, I suppose, just going out of their depth – that they weren't aware that the river dropped off, or they'd kind of swim down with the currents and not have the energy to swim back up against it to get out. So that has led to a couple of rescues,” adding: “I know there have been incidents of people drinking by the river. There seems to be a rise of that now during the good weather.”

Ms McInerney similarly finds that advising bathers on current directions and assisting when people swim out of their depth are the most common issues she deals with: “You could even have strong swimmers, like, I've come across people who are really comfortable, and then the second their feet can't touch the ground, it's instant, like, panic.” She continued that, even without conducting a rescue, lifeguards can be “a support” for bathers: “Even using our voice, being like: ‘you're actually fine, like, just swim over here’, is probably the main thing we'd ever have to do.”

Ms McInerney noted that lifeguard presence also has a behaviour-modifying effect: “We’re in the spots where swimming is mostly encouraged [...] you being there is encouraging people towards the safer places to swim.”

Under the Bathing Water Quality Regulations 2008, local authorities are obliged not only to safeguard designated bathing areas but also to consult the public in deciding what those areas are. Kilkenny County Council solicits annual submissions on bathing designations and suggestions can be emailed to [email protected].

A popular bathing location notably absent from the council’s designations is the stretch of Nore between the John’s and Lady Desart bridges, where people are frequently seen leaping into the water.

At the July meeting of the Municipal District of Kilkenny City, Fine Gael Councillor David FitzGerald proposed a motion to regulate swimming in the River Nore and prohibit diving from these city-centre bridges, a practice he described as being “off-putting” to tourists and locals, a source of “intimidation” and “a serious water safety issue”. The motion failed to pass, with Councillor Joe Malone stating: "I definitely won’t be supporting any motion that stops young people having fun.”

Asked if the council has considered lifeguard supervision at the bridge site, Mr Mahon said that, besides fitting public safety equipment like ringbuoys, “unfortunately, that isn't something that we really have much scope on dealing with currently.” He noted that the area has never been risk assessed for bathing, but that doing so “would definitely be beneficial”.

While the new pedestrian link between Bishops Meadows and the Abbey Quarter has improved urban connectivity to the Meadows bathing area and the Bleach Road Weir, city-centre swimming remains popular among children and teenagers.

Speaking to the Kilkenny People, three young divers at the Lady Desart Bridge were shocked to hear that councillors had considered banning bridge-jumping. “The Weir is like an hour walk away,” said one, with another adding: “Here is just for jumping off. If we wanted to swim, we’d go to the Weir; it’s cleaner.” Asked if they would swim at a designated bathing area in the city centre, they said: “That’d be class.”

Kilkenny County Council recently lodged plans with An Coimisiún Pleanála for a riverside facilities centre on the grounds of County Hall. The development includes changing facilities, showers and river access via a walkway and pontoons. The centre is oriented towards boating and water sports, however, and the plans do not explicitly mention bathing accommodations.