Thank you to our parents, many of whom have passed , for those happy memories. Lovely piece this afternoon, journal. Thank you.

Tar melted on the roads, fishing for minnows in jam jars in the stream, dressing up and holding plays, hopscotch, skipping, only coming back to the house for food, happy days….

Bandon and Bantry every year without fail. Then we got a summer like the one we’re having now and my Dad swore never again to holiday in Ireland, foreign fields from here on in. Us kids were so excited about the prospect of a foreign holiday, France maybe, sunny Spain or maybe even America. Oh no, for the next 10 years we did go somewhere abroad, Wales!!

Can’t beat the Courtown amusements and crazy golf in Pirates Cove. Poppin’ down to the Glider in Blackwater to gamble on the purple jockey and a bag of chips from Ramey’s van… Things that’ll always put a smile on your face!

Looking at everyone’s memories. Interesting how many are in Ireland. I asked my grown up kids the same question a while ago. We did the car ferry campsite trips and some algarve and canaries holidays with them. Still their happiest summer memories were the days when I’d arrive home a liitle early from work and scoop up all the kids on our road and head to skerries for an evening picnic and swim. Those few evening hours a few times over the summer have been extended in their memories to long sunny days. It is vital for children to make the effort to make memories. You might think it isn’t worth the effort but when my kids told me that , I was so glad I had done it.

Going to mosney, goin to the beach with sandwiches, playing tip the can and kerbie, using a plastic bag as a kite, going to the shop with a pound and being able to buy loads of sweets, swimming in the lake, watching fun house and power rangers, pretending to be a power ranger and trying to win a goldfish every august at the village festival. I wana be a kid again!

Day trips to Powerscourt to climb the rocks and run through the ferns. Also loved Brittas Bay and had competition in car to see who spotted the sea first. 10 of us in a 5 seater car, 2 or 3 on my mams lap, no seat belt regulations or baby car seats then. Rolling down the dunes and playing in the sea, loved those summers.

Barley Cove West Cork. What a beautiful beach..

Running through the dunes on the Kerry coast with no worries only were we having chips in the car later. Always reminds me of my Dad who past on a few years ago. :-(

Skerries, the chester cakes from Dowlings, lunch at the beach, Mums potatoe salad, candyfloss in the afternoon and going down the harbour with my father, quick pint for him orange and crisps for me then down to the trawlers coming in to buy fresh fish for dinner, and the sun always shone, then after dinner down to the amusements, my brother making the swing boats go really high to make me scream!! Wonderful memories, went back recently with my Mum and my own children, had a great day, only thing missing was the chester cakes, candy floss and my Dad x

1982 (Aged 7), sitting in the pilot seat of a Boeing 737 flying to Majorca (back in the day when that was allowed).
That view! To this day, I still love the window seat on planes.
The holiday was pretty amazing too though.

70′s Summers in Duncannon. Legs burning on the plastic covered seats of Dads Hillman Hunter. The aroma of pipe tobacco coupled with Sunday GAA radio commentary. Exploring the old fort. Sunburn. Pennies into the slots. Chips. 99′s, Heaven!

Salthill, getting sunburnt and this being covered by well meaning aunt with ponds cold cream!!!

Running out the door to the beach as soon as the sun came out! Spending the day there and then getting a 99 in the very sandy car on the way home :)

Campsite in ballyheigue. Cold hairwashes under the tap. Penny bars. Bingo nights. Chips with salt and vinegar wrapped in newspaper. Getting the back burnt off ya footing turf in the bog. Soggy tomato sandwiches from a Tupperware box. Sand as extra! Peeing behind the ditch on the long journeys.singing every verse of ten green bottles , the Rathlin bog , and tge woman who swallowed a fly.

Tramore. My dad would drive a bus of locals down to the beach every August ghost train was favorite part of the day. And finding money on bus that evening when tidying up!!

sunshine and hot weather in Ireland i remember that been fun and just been able to go out into my back yard and swing all day without having to run in out of rain

That picture is of Keem Bay prounounced as kim bay. When the weather is good it’s amazing. I spent many summer holidays swimming in the ocean there. Achill is an amazing island

Achill Island every year, stayed in Giltys b&b, when the weather was good Achill was like paradise. Keem beach in particular….. My parents still go every year…..

Gong to Curracloe beach on Wednesdays because that was my Dad’s day off It made us feel really special that we got to go on days that most kids couldn’t because their parents worked during the week. It made up for not getting to go every Sunday because of Dad’s work. Sandwiches containing real sand, lukewarm diluted orange in giant plastic bottles, hours spent in the water, in the Big Hollow and then days of “DON’T TOUCH ME!!” after getting scalded with sunburn. Happy out!

There’s very few beaches in Ireland that can hold a candle to the miles of golden sand in Wexford! We got a holiday without my parents actually having to come up with the money to take us away on holiday.

Day trips to Silver Strand, best beach ever, with our cousins. Two families, 4 adults and 8 kids, in a Ford Cortina. Freezing cold sea water…….getting thrown in by your Dad…….ham sandwiches and flasks of hot tea……comparing the front of your arm to the underside of your arm to see if you were sunburnt yet….and then slathering yourself with Nivea! Sing-song all the way home in the car. Happy days!!!

Got to be Barleycove, best beach in Ireland

loved going to woodstown in Waterford as a kid and the fair that used to be held there every year in the field during the August bank holiday. going to tramore and getting chips out of dooleys and sitting along the promenade. wasting the two pound I got on the 2p slots. Best memory though was been in the car coming back from mt. mellary me mam and dad in the front six of us in the car me crouched down behind the drivers seat, and that song “sex on the beach” on the radio. My brother and I had such a fit of the giggles hearing the words.

Footing and saving turf. 4 weeks in the bog every summer. Such memories, such aches and pains. How I loved going back to school.

Mullaghmore,Co. Sligo where we had great “Carnics” in the 70′s. Too rainy for picnics. Heading there next week,3 generations all back together

Lahinch, Kilkee, Ballybunion, Clonea, Youghal…myself and my family used to take nice day trips to the beach, great memories. :)

Anybody else remember playing a game ‘Yellow Registration, can’t hit back!’ ?
You can thump the persons arm when you spotted a Yellow Reg.
Used to play it with my brother in the back of the Hillman. Room enough for 8 of us, in that car, and two bikes!

Out to Dunmore East or Tramore for a Sunny afternoon on the beach (which included swimming in the coldest water known to man!)

Then Chips on the way home and the car would stink of vinegar.

The view of the sea, we lived in at least 3 hours from the sea (west midlands u.k) the sight of the sea was amazing, we used to go go kent, cornwall, somerset, devon and wales.

We took holidays to ireland and i always got sea sick, we moved back to ireland when i was 8 and we went to barley cove, waterville, and westport. We lived by the sea side near youghal, the quality hotel is now there…

Defo courtown and me dad explaining the offside rule when i was 11. There’s also butlins, who doesn’t have great memories of butlins

80′s summer hits, the smell of candy floss and finding 10p in an arcade machine (usually pole position). Lahinch, Co Clare!

PWLLHELI, Wales. It was awesome as a kid.

Salthill in early 70s . car journey from Wicklow, picknic on route, tg
the mobile home to little kids was brill. Out to Conemara or the buzz on Salthill prom. Happy Summers.

Butlins!!!!!

Getting the no. 18 bus from crumlin village to sandymount strand. My mother would have her wicker basket with ham sandwiches, tea, TK lemonade, tayto crisps and biscuits. The bus always late. Arriving at sandymount green and walking to the sea with the blue sky and the strand stretching out before us. Running to the seawall and being so excited about being at the sea.

The fiat 850, the wellies packed, the roof rack, the singing in the car as we had no radio, the salad sambos, the flask of tea by the side of the road. Drawing on the sand with Dad, going for early morning walks to get the fresh air. The chips on carne beach, the amusements and especially pacman at perks in Ardmore. The rain in Ballybunion and the processions at our lady’s island in Wexford. Isle of man on the ferry and getting thrown out of the slot places because I was only ten. Mam keeping us all happy with the chatting and the ice creams.

Eating sausages and chips in the picnic ground beside the beach in ballyheigue. My grandparents rented a house in glenbeigh for the months of july and august every year and everyone went down in their turn. The whole family went down for the rose of tralee. We all went into tralee for the rose parade on the sat night. We loved it as kids.

Flying to Nice in the family jet then staying in our Monaco villa all summer long. I remember once my young brother knocked his lobster bisque soup over Penny our hired help.
I remember once that summer meeting a ruffian who infiltrated our private beach and proceeded to verbally abuse Mumsy and I. Language was vile.
Still, we were happy with our lot.
So grateful to my parents for such a grounded upbringing.

Seeing my very first groundhog during summer holidays in the Swiss Alps

Bundoran. Needs no explanation. Commonly referred to as Fundoran also. :-)

Salthill in August. Pine forest on Sundays. Playing in the fields near Cappagh hospital every day. Skipping, piggy beds, red rover, cleeves toffee. Endless sunny days. Great friends.

Playing rounders with my friends from the Wexford campsite

Cycling my bike down Carne beach

Those were the days

Salthill and those steel go kart things that you rode around the streets…
Glenties & Dungloe playing on the Spanish armada shipwreck…
Listening to M?cheal O’Muirahertigh on a beach in Cortown…
Watching the rose of tralee in some strangers living room ala Irish summer B&B’s 80s style!!

Summers in achill and going to keen beach in the above pic and holidays in aranmore island Donegal. The best fun ever.

We lived in Dalkey but it was Bray every summer, digging for worms when the tide was out, fishing in Bray harbour catching plaice and eels, the amusements, Cockels sold from a handcart on the promonarde, pots of hot water being sold to make your own tea, up the cable car to the top of Bray head and sunshine

Endless summer days in Gorey at my Nanas playing in her orchard and trying to get lost in the forest….eating blackberries straight off the bush…,curracloe beach…..99′s and screwballs and 10p mixes. Then off to Salthill to my cousins….slot machines which I filled with 2p pieces from my Dad…leisure land and the waltzers which always made me want to puke…..walking the prom….the sun splitting the rocks. Freedom, sunburn, freckles and lots of laughter. !!

Inch, Co.Kerry with all my cousins!! Slanty rain on the windows on the way down and Gareth Brooks in the tape deck! Fungie! The beach :)

Surfing in Enniscrone on a piece of aeroboard from the extension we were building on our house! Also picking cockles in Elly Bay, Belmullet.

Sun

Driving to west Cork – on the way playing ‘I spie cars’. Swimming in Coolmain Beach, digging for mussels at Harbour View, cooking sausages outdoors in Gougane Barra and then the adventure in the forest. Getting yummy ice cream in Dunmanway en route to Auntie Kathleens – collecting warm eggs from the farm and using newspaper on a clothes hanger in an outdoor ‘bathroom’ with a bull next door!! Oh and the patsy pops in wonderful Bandon and stopping off in The Crock of Gold in Cashel on the way home to the ‘Big Smoke’ – wonderful memories

Burtonport in Donegal. From the Red lobster to visiting Packie Bonnar. Still love going up there

Waterville Co. Kerry, enough said!

, achill and achill. The deal was one day on the bog and the next day on the beach . Would look forward to seeing the sun tan after a day on the bog. Dad( well I’d mum agreed ) treated us to a mint choc ice Cream on the way home from the bog… A real treat.. Back when kids really appreciated treats. Then we would have the next day at keem beach (our favorite as we had over 5 in achill island to choose from). We used to love downing our tine building a dam to make a kiddies pool on the beach because the water was always warmer in the kiddies pool plus it was too cold once we came out of the sea as we were made run around to warm up… Towels were a luxury.. But the picnics in keen beach were the BEST … Such good memories. Love it ..love achill. Can’t wait to hit the island next week!

Trip to the top of the World Trade Centre, flight to Florida and Disney World and 9 hour drive to Niagra Falls

on holidays in wales at the age of 9 participating with possibly 20 people building a mamoth of a sand castle that could fit a few ppl and being bitterly dissapointed not being allowed to stay in the castle when the tide was coming in! oh and the town had a cool alice in wonderland museum!

scaring dublin kids who would go down to wexford to swim off the pear in cahore by dumping old stinky fish guts and carcases of goats in the water, it was the best way to keep them away from our fishing spots! :D

Being smacked and free of left wing hippies keen to impose an nanny state dystopia on us.

Mosney by the sea
I remember stopping off in Drogheda and getting new runners, they had velco straps instead of laces (brand was not important)

Major adventures in my Grandparents’ gardens, and chasing rabbits on the sandybanks in Currane, just across the Sound from Achill Island

Chocolate and presents were good too…

All the above memories took place in Bundoran, a place I’ve since associated with smacks, left wing hippies, chocolate and presents!