It’s August, meaning it’s the last month of the summer holidays. And while the kids still have a few weeks of freedom left, it’ll be back-to-school season before we know it.
As a kid, the beginning of August sometimes felt like you were on borrowed time. Though we still had a month of school-free weekdays to go, we thought about what we had done in our summer so far and what we still wanted to do before heading back to the books.
To our credit, there was quite a lot we managed to fit in those eight-or-so weeks of freedom. From playing in the street or on the green 'til way past your normal bedtime to swimming in seawater you’d freeze in at any other time of year, some of our most cherished memories occurred in the summer.
Read more: In pictures: Sunny days in and near Dublin through the years
We decided to take a look back the typical summers of Dublin childhoods by compiling different memories from different generations. If you grew up in Dublin during the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s or even early ‘00s, something on this list likely played a role in the summers of your youth.
A day out in Bray
With its classic seafront and annual summer festival, Bray has been home to many summer memories for Dubs who arrived to its pier via DART, train or car over the years. A trip to the Wicklow town usually consisted of a walk or play on the beach, having a ball on the rides at Dawson's Amusements and having the best seafood washed down by an ice-cream cone regardless of the weather. Speaking of…
Eating old-school ice-creams & ice-pops
The power the ice-cream man and the freezer in the local newsagent had over us knew no bounds. We loved ordering an aul’ 99 or a screwball when the van pulled up on our road, or sliding a shop freezer door back and grabbing now-discontinued classics like Sparkles, a Wibbly Wobbly Wonder, Solero Shots or a Fat Frog.
Fish and chips by the sea
From Fingal to the Wicklow border, there's plenty of gorgeous coastal towns and villages in Dublin - and plenty of gorgeous food to be had within them. As a kid, nothing beat a day of being burnt alive at the seaside, finished off with a trip to the chipper. Leo Burdock’s in Howth, anyone?
Summer TV schedules
These days, kids watch shows on every streaming service known to man or else YouTube videos of adults unboxing toys. We’ll never understand this on-demand selection of children’s programming when we grew up with TV channels airing marathons of kids shows and cartoons to make the most of summer viewership.
Depending on your age (and in later years, whether or not you had Sky), you might’ve been glued to anything like ‘Bosco’, ‘Quizone’, ‘The Morbegs’, ‘Sesame Street’, ‘ThunderCats’, ‘Ulysses 31’, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, ‘Johnny Bravo’, ‘Art Attack’, ‘Arthur’, ‘Ed, Edd n Eddy’ or ‘Hey Arnold!’ and so on. And on a rainy day, your square eyes were in front of the telly so long you’d catch repeats of the episodes shown that morning in the evening.
A dip in the baths
Remember the days when outdoor swimming pools weren’t something that, to most Irish people, only existed abroad or on TV screens? What we’d give to be able to go back to the heyday of one of the public seawater baths around Dublin that now stand in ruin.
Whether you were a South Dublin resident who was lucky enough to live near one or a Northsider/city dweller that used to get the train out, the baths were the best way to spend a sunny day for most. Those who grew up in the '50s, '60s, '70s or '80s likely have many pool-side memories from the summers of their childhood to teenage years.
A rainy day in Leisureplex
As kids of the ‘00s will remember, Leisureplex was more than just a place of birthday parties - it was a place of refuge from the rains of Irish summer. On summer days when playing outside on the road or enjoying the outdoors wasn’t an option, Leisureplex gave us space to run around and get out all our energy.
Be it through bowling, arcade games, laser tag or the indoor jungle gym, Leisureplex was the perfect way to stay entertained. While kids can still enjoy all the fun at branches in Blanchardstown, Coolock, Charlestown and Tallaght, we can’t help but mourn the now-demolished Stillorgan location.
A visit to Dublin Zoo
Still a summer staple, although significantly changed, a trip to the zoo was a must during the weeks you had off school as a kid. Remember how you could see a polar bear there until 2003? Or that summer of 1993 when an animatronic dinosaur exhibition blew our minds?
Family picnics
There was nothing like making use of local scenery for a day out that cost your parents nothing but the price of the journey there and the packed lunch they brought along. Whether it was at Malahide or Ardgillan Castles, Phoenix Park, Stephen's Green or elsewhere, as long as we had a packet of Tayto and space to run around, we were happy out.
A trip to Mosney
Long before the days of Disneyland or Universal Studios, there was Mosney holiday camp in Meath. Now a direct provision centre, it was once a bustling summer institution for many, particularly those in the surrounding counties of Louth and Dublin.
Many Dubs remember it as a big part of the summers of their childhood and teenage years. It wasn’t too far on the train, you could come as a day visitor if you didn’t want/have the means to book a stay and there was all sorts of fun to keep the whole family entertained.
Kids of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s will remember it as a Butlin’s resort, while ‘80s and ‘90s kids instead know it as Mosney Holiday Centre. Either way, if you visited before numbers dwindled in the mid-late ‘90s ahead of its closure in 2000, you’ll remember the fairground rides, water park, Redcoat ballroom entertainers and competitions to crown anything from ‘Most Glamorous Grandmother’ to the winners of the ‘Mother and Child Contest’.
What other childhood memories do you have of summer in Dublin? Let us know in the comments below.
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