Forty Foot
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The Forty Foot (Template:Langx)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is a promontory on the southern tip of Dublin Bay at Sandycove, County Dublin, Ireland, from which people have been swimming in the Irish Sea all year round for some 250 years.<ref>as of 2008</ref><ref name=".org">
Name
The name "Forty Foot" is somewhat obscure. On an 1833 map, the Marine Road (located Template:Cvt to the west) was named the Forty Foot Road, possibly because it was Template:Cvt wide; the name may have been transferred to the swimming place, which was called the Forty-Foot Hole in the 19th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other accounts claim the name was given by fishermen because it was forty feet (Template:Frac fathoms) deep, but the water in the area is no deeper than Template:Cvt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Others have attempted to link it to the 40th (the 2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot, who supposedly bathed there, but they were stationed at Richmond Barracks in Inchicore.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Use
At first, it was exclusively a male bathing place, and Sandycove Bathers Association, a men's swimming club, was established.<ref name=".org"/> Owing to its relative isolation and gender-restrictions it became a popular spot for nudists.<ref name=".org"/> On 24 July 1974, about a dozen female equal-rights activists ("Dublin City Women’s Invasion Force") went swimming, and sat with placards.<ref name="protest-forty-foot">
</ref> Later, a few women swam nude in 1989.<ref name="rte.ie/631349">Template:Cite web</ref> Now swimming is open to men, women, and children. In 2014, the Sandycove Bathers Association ended the ban on women club members,<ref name="protest-forty-foot"/> and they may now use the onsite changing rooms and clubhouse kitchen.<ref name="wheresmybackpack/forty-foot">Template:Cite web</ref> The swimming club requests voluntary contributions for the upkeep of the area.<ref name=".org"/>
Safety
Death, near-drowning and hypothermia have resulted from swimming at Forty Foot.<ref name="irishexaminer-30953758">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="thejournal.ie/5397391">Template:Cite news</ref>
In literature
James Joyce and Oliver St. John Gogarty once resided at the Martello tower together. It is now the James Joyce Tower and Museum. The opening section of Joyce's Ulysses is set here, with the characters Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan being partly based on Joyce himself and Gogarty, respectively. Buck Mulligan described the sea as "The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea."
The Forty Foot also featured in the novels At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (1939), At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill (2001), Nessuna notizia dello scrittore scomparso by Daniele Bresciani (2017),'The Elements by John Boyne (2025), and Again Rachel by Marian Keyes (2022).
In media
The Forty Foot is featured in the series Bad Sisters.<ref name="irishtimes-horgan-forty-foot">Template:Cite web</ref>
In the 2023 documentary film Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming, With Dave Letterman, David Letterman visits the location, which ends up serving as inspiration for the composition of a song by Bono and the Edge called "40 Foot Man" featured in the credits of the show.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Further reading
Images
- Forty Foot
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Forty Foot changing rooms and clubhouse kitchen, 2008 -
Sunrise at the Forty Foot, 2015 -
Sunrise at the Forty Foot, 2015
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References
External links
- 40foot.org usurped site
- Fortyfoot.org usurped site
- the Forty Foot, 1982 RTE documentary