‘Restore our diving boards’

LOCALS IN FENIT ARE URGING THE COUNTY COUNCIL TO REINSTATE THEIR DIVING BOARDS FOLLOWING LEGAL PRECEDENT ESTABLISHED IN CO CLARE

THE general public is weighing in strongly behind a new campaign fighting to restore the once famous diving boards in Fenit - after more than a decade since they were removed over public liability fears.

Fenit has suffered ever since with the numbers of visitors down as a result of the loss of the boards, locals believe.

Organisers of the campaign, launched last week, are calling on Kerry County Council to restore the boards in a move they say can be easily accomplished.

The boards were removed by the authority after the protracted legal battle that ensued when a case for damages was taken in 2001 by an individual who claimed to have been injured at the site in 1999. It was the first such action in over 50 years of activity at the boards.

The claim ultimately led to the dissolution of the Tralee Swimming Club over the very real fears that individual members could find themselves personally liable for damages at the site. It was reborn under a new name, but not before Kerry County Council assumed responsibility for the foreshore licence from the Department of the Marine governing the running of the boards. The Council then moved in 2004 to take the boards down in the conclusion of a legal saga that led to great sadness among all Fenit fans.

But Fenit has gone too long without the boards as a new campaign forms with the aim of putting pressure on the Council to reinstate an infrastructure that once drew hundreds (pictured below) to the area.

“Kilkee has managed to erect diving boards under Clare County Council so the precedent is there,” Restore Fenit Diving Boards campaign member Mike O’Neill said.

“We have had an engineer survey the site and believe there are a number of ways of reinstating the boards we can pursue, including the possibility of taking them to a greater height than before in what would entail bringing them out further and digging out part of the seabed. Or they could be left as they are with redesigned signage satisfying health and safety requirements,” Mr O’Neill

said.

MAIN: Photo by Domnick Walsh Inset: An example of the popular scenes that once played out at the slip. Launching Fenit’s campaign to get its much-loved old diving boards back were, down low: Donald Walsh , Billy Ryle , Liam Doyle , Paddy Kissane and Eppie Edwards ; up top, John Edwards and Mike O’Neill .