Locals get behind proposal to re-open Salthill’s old tidal pools

Planners have been urged to take the plunge and reopen Salthill’s two decommissioned tidal pools.

The sea baths have been unused for several decades since they were in-filled in the 1980s and rendered useless for swimming.

But now a trio of local swimmers want the amenity restored at Ladies Beach – and they have a big wave of public support in the city backing the proposal.

Brothers Morgan and Ronan McGuire from An Baile Árd in Barna and their cousin, Stephen Tummon from Circular Road, lodged a submission this week to the Draft Galway City Development Plan 2023-2029 calling for the sea pools to be reopened.

Around 30 similar submissions had also been lodged with city planners before the deadline today (Friday) and more than 4,550 people also signed an online petition, which has been shared extensively and supported on social media.

Morgan McGuire told the Galway City Tribune that they hope to capitalise on the swell in popularity of sea swimming during Covid-19 lockdown, to help their campaign to refurbish the pools.

“My brother and cousin and I grew up swimming in Salthill and at Blackrock. The last few years swimming was getting more and more popular and people were getting into triathlons and so on. As a country we are getting healthier and we started using the coast more. Now, especially in lockdown, swimming was already booming but Covid has sent it into overdrive,” explained Morgan.

“We had been in other lidos around the world, including London. We’ve a cousin in Australia who swims in a lido in Byron Bay and sends us photos. We thought ‘we should have something like that’ and we actually do have something like that, it’s sitting there but it’s filled-in at the moment,” he said.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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