My Ocean- Heritage Week 2026 “A trip to the seaside”
Video transcript
My name is Patrick, and my recollection of the seaside is a bit different to what other people have had. We discovered Sandymount years ago, and as Rita says, “You’re eating sand in the sandwiches.”
I can remember when we got a little bit more affluent, my wife and I, with the first car we bought—50 quid, I think my mother-in-law lent me 50 pounds for it—and we went down to Sandymount, and we got blown out of it.
And at this stage, we decided we’d go to Sandycove. And when we got there, we couldn’t believe the difference between Sandycove and Sandymount. It was a lovely day, wasn’t it? The sun was shining, we were picking winkles—well, the kids were picking winkles to beat the band.
So, as we got more affluent, we decided that we’d go on a caravan holiday. So, my wife, fair play to her, booked a camping holiday. And at that stage, the car was getting a bit beyond it. I went down to the scrapyard and bought two tires, and the bloke put them on.
We got as far as Lucan, and remember, you’re going to Galway, we got a puncture. So, we changed the wheel, off we went to Galway, and it never stopped raining. We had my wife’s nephew from England with us, and she used to send him and my two sons down to the swimming pool in Salthill. And they’d come back, and they didn’t know whether the rain was from the swimming pool or from the… the hair was from the swimming pool or from the rain!
Anyhow, between hot and the totten, it was lousy weather. We went to a place called, um, in Connemara. It was a lovely… a coral beach. And the waves were six or eight feet high, and having nothing else to do, the three boys entered the sea. My wife maybe had a heart attack—I let them!
And, thankfully, everything worked out well, and that’s my recollection of the seaside.
Hilda O'Grady
