Women invade Dublin's male-only swimming spot

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

The Forty Foot is a famous sea swimming spot in Ireland’s capital city of Dublin. For hundreds of years, only men had the privilege of bathing in its deep, icy waters – naked if they chose. That was until one day in the summer of 1974, when a group of women decided to plot an invasion. At a time when Irish women couldn’t even access contraception, why did this group of hardy feminists decide to fight this particular battle for equality? Rosie Blunt speaks to poet, writer, women’s rights activist, and swimmer Mary Dorcey. (Photo: Woman diving at the Forty Foot in 2019. Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Rosie Blunt.
0:20.0	It's the summer of 1974 and we're in Dublin, Ireland, at the 40ft, a sea swimming spot on the city's
0:29.0	coast. For hundreds of years this deep rocky bathing pool has been open only to men who often swim
0:39.0	naked in its deep icy waters. But all that's about to change as a group of around a dozen women
0:52.2	pottening patients. Mary Dorsey, who is part of Ireland's Women's Liberation Movement, is among them.
1:04.2	We had the landscape and air invasion. I came in in my boat, rode up from my harbour,
1:11.4	called More Road, with a friend and we came into the little entrance to the 40ft by boat and
1:20.0	others came rushing in from the land. And several of us had umbrellas and went off the high diving
1:30.8	board, holding up the umbrellas. That was the air invasion. The water was freezing, you have to
1:38.8	realise, even in summer, so we did need good swimmers, so many were just brave and you know,
1:43.8	were terrified of the water. And so they would have to go in and make a show of you know splashing
1:49.6	and we put the good swimmers in a ring around those of you know, if we had any problem,
1:54.6	we could rescue them. And even to get back out of the water was quite challenging because you
1:59.2	know there was a seaweed covered stone stairway and these huge waves washing in in both directions.
2:09.2	After that first invasion, the women continued storming the 40ft on a regular basis.
2:15.7	Very often it was just a few of us would be out at a party or out for drinks somewhere
2:23.3	and at two in the morning if it was you know any time between May and October. A few of you
2:30.3	chatting would say why don't we go out to the 40ft, you know, and you'd pile into one person's
2:35.7	mini, you know, and drive out to the 40ft and just go running in often, obviously nude because we
2:41.9	wouldn't have our bikinis with us. So then people began to hear about this and they began to come
2:48.1	along just to watch us because this was so exciting, there was nowhere else in Ireland that women
2:52.4	went nude bathing. The group of women soon started attracting local press, like this reporter
	...

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