Sir, – I walked Dollymount beach in Dublin on Sunday morning. I wondered what was wrong when more cars were leaving the beach than entering on the wooden bridge, at midday.
As I walked the dunes, initially I didn’t realise the problem until I went on to the strand at the causeway, where people were also leaving in droves.
The smell of sewage was overwhelming. There was the sight of miles of some form of dried effluent at the high-tide mark. In 45 years of regularly running and now walking Dollymount I have never seen it this bad. I felt sorry for the young families who had packed picnics and young children and then had to leave on health and safety grounds.
In my “non-scientific” opinion, Dollymount was not fit for use today and should have been closed. I even saw some hardy individuals in the water.
I think a swim in a cooling pond in Sellafield would have been safer. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CASSIDY,
Dublin 9.