{"id":10701,"date":"2021-01-25T18:56:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T18:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=10701"},"modified":"2021-01-25T18:56:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T18:56:18","slug":"dublins-forty-foot-over-fourteen-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2021\/01\/25\/dublins-forty-foot-over-fourteen-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin&#8217;s Forty Foot over Fourteen Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4TrKHxAmwDs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div><i><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For the past fourteen years I have been a daily swimmer at the Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire &#8211; my home town.<\/span> <\/i><\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10702 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"832\" \/><\/div>\n<p><i>Seven years ago I began documenting this life down by Sandycove, particularly those summer days when the sporadic Irish sun comes out, a signal for Dubliners everywhere\u00a0to descend on this place to cool down, socialise, get intimate and, above all, have fun.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10703 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>In winter&#8217;s past this small enclave around Sandycove harbour is deserted, bar myself and a few other hardy swimmers and misfits from modern society. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10704 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1206\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>This winter \u2013 the year of Covid \u2013 things have changed.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10705 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"831\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>The so-called \u2018Dryrobes\u2019 crowd have arrived to join our old motley crew this year, as more \u2018normal,\u2019 well-heeled Dubliners have come to soak up the magic water, and enjoy, or endure, our icy secret, that used to be the preserve of those of us considered mad by the rest of society. But in the new normal of our world today, what is normal?<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10706 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/> <\/i><i>The only normal people I know, are the ones I don&#8217;t know very well !<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10707 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>The Forty Foot is special to me; three years ago it nearly took my life, when a wild storm hit as I was swimming out by the rock. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10708 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>But the sea water has helped heal me spiritually, physically and mentally. Every day however cold I swim. Sometimes alone, sometimes with my crew. Nearly always I come out refreshed and feeling alive, even normal.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10709 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"975\" height=\"1300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>When the first days of summer arrive, along comes the rest of Dublin to bask by the Irish Sea. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10711 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>Teenagers come to celebrate the end of school; to have their first drink or maybe first romance \u2013 just as I did, decades ago. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10713 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>The regulars come to top up their all year tans, and take longer swims. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10714 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>Lovers come to be alone and get intimate; families congregate at the back of the Forty Foot wall, on the small Sandycove beach \u2013 the quiet side. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10715 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF12.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>All of this happens around one big rock on the southern tip of Dublin, a place that makes Dublin so special to me, and many others. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10716 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF13.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p><i>These fourteen images from my fourteen year pilgrimage give an insight into this unique Forty Foot life and style, that comes so alive in summer, and even now this winter.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10717 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/BarryFF14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"899\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past fourteen years I have been a daily swimmer at the Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire &#8211; my home town. Seven years ago I began documenting this life down by Sandycove, particularly those summer days when the sporadic Irish sun comes out, a signal for Dubliners everywhere\u00a0to descend on this place to cool [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":10706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[816,2664,2665,2666,2667,2717,8195,9061],"class_list":["post-10701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-barry-delaney","tag-dryrobe","tag-dryrobe-crowd","tag-dryrobe-dublin","tag-dryrobes","tag-dublin-sea-swimming","tag-sea-swimming","tag-the-forty-foot-in-dublin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}