Skyroad

By Skyroad

Seawatcher, The Fortyfoot, Sandycove

The Fortyfoot bathing place in Sandycove, Co Dublin, is named after the 40th Foot Regiment of the British army, which used to be stationed in a battery there. One of my favourite passages from Ulysses takes place at the Fortyfoot. Buck Mulligan is about to go for a swim: "A young man clinging to a spur of rock near him moved slowly frogwise his green legs in the deep jelly of the water." That's a perfect description of the water there on a calm day. Earlier, in the opening pages, the wider sea is referred to by Mulligan as "snotgreen" and "scrotumtightening."

It was certainly scrotumtightening on Sunday, with a numbed grey sky and a chilly wind, the bay full of choppy waves. Nevertheless, while I wandered around taking photographs, I saw a number of young men strip and jump into the seething, crashing waves; it really was dangerous. But people are drawn to the sea like moths to a flame, as with the onlooker in the photograph. On days like this, when the big waves thump and shudder the stones, the Fortyfoot feels (and looks) like a boat, plowing into the sea.

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