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Whatever about the dangers inherent in jumping into water with no idea of what lies beneath – much jagged debris is still being cleared out of the harbour waters – the latest craze for these local kids is timing their dives so they just miss an oncoming boat. Positioning themselves at the mouth of the
“It’s gotten so out of hand over the last few weeks that we actually had to lock the jetty for a day,” he explains. “That’s something that we really don’t want to do, as it’s a beautiful walk for people, and we’re so happy to see everyone coming and going down here. But, we’ve had twenty near-misses in the last month. And it has now gotten to the point where we aren’t just worried for these kids’ safety but our own too…”
“This is a simple matter of life and death here,” continues Bernard. “I myself nearly had a boy land on my boat earlier this week – he missed me by just a few feet. The trouble is, part of the thrill of this new game is their not knowing where the oncoming boat is. The running distance across such a high platform
“The only real hope is that the parents intervene,” finishes Bernard. “We don’t have the power to discipline these kids, so, we can only hope that the mothers and fathers can recognise the danger their kids are putting themselves in here.
To be fair, that looks tempting…
rom smoking to skydiving, it’s pretty remarkable how so many of us knowingly engage in activities that have quite a strong chance of shortening our 
lives.
marina, on the rounds, the kids are playing chicken right at the busiest junction. This is the fairway – the only way in and out of the marina for the boats.
It’s enough to give Bernard Gallagher, the harbour master down in Greystones, some sleepless nights. With over 40 years experience – having formed BJ Marine back in 1975, and subsequently working harbours in his native Donegal, Dun Laoghaire and now Greystones – this old sea dog has never come across such a worrying trend as this.
It was when pointing out the dangers of diving in the marina to a group of almost twenty teenagers (“the numbers are growing all the time”) last Friday that Bernard and his assistant, James, were threatened. A call to the Gardaí merely saw the kids make their escape by ducking out by the North Beach entrance. A mother with a buggy expressed her shock at how aggressive the kids had been.
means that they’re basically jumping into the water blind.
24 comments
thats already two crimes broken
and taking pictures of children without permission
harbour master has committed a crime, child abuse
Before we get lost in who is on one side and who is on the other, please remember that jumping or diving into the fairway, that is, the boat channel, is lethal and dangerous. The main concern is the safety of young people. That is the main issue. I know from first hand what can happen. When I was in university, I did volunteer work at a hospital. I saw for myself what happened when a young teenager dived inappropriately. He suffered severe spinal damage. I will never forget him. And I would never ever forgive myself if anything happened to a young person here in Greystones and I didn’t speak out, or do something, in an attempt to keep them safe. When you are young and healthy, you don’t always realise what can happen. Please, please, don’t dive or jump into the harbour. I hope parents are reading this, too.
This Mr Gallagher has some previous in terms of taking “direct action”. His employees were supplied by his company with angle grinders just a few years back, which they then used to commit vandalism and destruction of public property — sawing or grinding off the mooring rings at the north end of the north breakwater which were for the use of the fishing boats.
It’s Gallagher who is behind the exclusion of the fishermen from the harbour to keep it for the yachties who pay his very high mooring fees — and now he wants to exclude teenagers as well? I’m not surprised at his aggression: as I said, he has previous.
All this could have been avoided if Sisk, BJ Marine and WCC had sat down with community groups like GUBOH and others to work out a proper, democratic set of regulations for the harbour instead of the draconian by-laws imposed by WCC at Gallagher’s and Sisk’s behest.
And a point of clarification. The harbour is NOT private property. It belongs to a state entity, Wicklow County Council and is thus public property. Sisk hold a concession to operate it (and pocket any income) for 30 years, but it is and remains public property. In other words, it’s OURS.
The children (because you are a child if you are under 17) on here should really watch what they say – they are opening themselves up for legal proceedings against them for slander by accusing the Harbour Master of doing/saying things that may not have actually occurred just as you think they did. Also they are being incredibly disrespectful, which is not helping their cause. And their spelling/grammar is shocking which again does their cause no good.
I know kids want to jump into the water and have fun – that’s perfectly normal and should be encouraged and facilitated – but irrespective of what they think they are on private property in the marina and they must move on if asked to do so, without any back talk.
A good solution would be have a safe, designated diving spot – like is in Wicklow harbour. But until that is found then the Harbour Master is perfectly within his rights to get you to move on, and indeed if he did not do that he would not be doing his job and could get in trouble himself!
If he asks you to move on – you say yes and you go. You do not give lip back.
But you are perfectly correct to campaign for a legal, safe diving spot. Get together and write a letter to Wicklow County Council, and copy in the 5 Wicklow TDs.
We are being rude?have you seen the article calling the parents of the children dumb. If anything you guys are being very rude.The article written is very over exaggerated.The harbour master was pushing children off the docks yesterday which he can not do.I have lost all respect for the harbour master
We’re certainly trying to get both sides of the story. Through his father, Anto, we have asked Liam Byrne if he’d like to talk to us, to give us his take on what happened. Given that he was reportedly one of the boys pushed, and is very much a part of this group of kids, it would be great to get that perspective. We’ll see if he’s willing to meet up…
I call this statement to be untrue. We are always very careful and keep a lookout for boats before we jump we are only here to enjoy ourselves and have fun. The harbor master has been rude to a group of teenagers using a small dose of bad language and trying to seize their belongings it would be a great idea if we could get somewhere high to jump with a ladder
I came here the other day with the boys and he was trying to get us to take our bags off and then grabbing my friends bag and fleecing the thing I think Bernard should get a new job and we should have the craic
Bernard deserves a slap
God, I must be getting old and cranky. Can any of these kids spell?
More to the point, can any of them actually use punctuation? The evidence says no, but that being said they think they’re clever by jumping from a harbour wall into a marina basin/harbour mouth when boats are motoring in and out; not to mention jumping into an area with know what might be under the water…. Ignorance is bliss until one of their mates is injured or killed but let’s hope that never happens
Yes. And no.
I would just like to point out that the marina is owned by a private company and is thus private property. This can result in a refusal of access if people dont abide by the rules, of which many have teens have not bern doing.
Although this is the case i would just like to say that in my opinion the manager/harbour master was and still is quite harsh on them in terms of the rules.
Lighten up man, if they injure themselfs i doubt they will tame legal actions.
Of which many teens have been doing*
this is truly hilarious , my friends and i do this quite often and none of us have gotten ourselves into any “tragic” accidents and the water which we leap into is fine , i personally have jumped in at low-tide safely without any injuries. my group of “crazy teenagers” friends and i never jump into the water whilst boats are passing , this shows that although yes the leap can be dangerous if no precaution is taken whilst falling , the jumping into water “blind” is safe as over 100’s have done it and resulted in safely climbing back up the ladder which is close by in case anything BAD does actually occur . I think the “Greystones guide” should make an article on the harbour master Bernard Gallagher on how he can be “aggressive” towards us and has in the past attempted to take our belongings and has kicked us off the marina without us actually touching his precious water .while yes we do understand that this is illegal in most cases it is certainly not “a matter of life or death” unless you are leaping into the water incautiously.
http://lifeguardsireland.blogspot.ie/2010/07/tombstoning-or-pier-jumping-dangers.html
And this is a sample even without boats !Read it and it might put a bit of mature thinking into your head.
A little learning is a dangerous thing …… Those who are trying to keep you safe. KNOW the dangers they are talking about. Will you still spout your ‘infallible ‘ knowledge when some parents have to bury their child because of a fatal accident. Get sense before it’s too late.
Throat* spelling mistake
And so, unfortunately is debree!
Don’t really care as long as it’s legible
I think you mean intelligible John. Because it is typed and not hand written it is by default perfectly legible. Even this ‘word’ – aijvbaoijdvb – which is completely unintelligble is perfectly legible.
Anyhow to the annoyed boys who are not good spellers: Before commenting in a public forum you should make the effort to get it right as bad spelling and bad grammar will result in no-one taking you seriously.
Your sense of what’s a priority here is a bit off, don’t you think? ‘Life or death’ — and your concern is spelling?
Hi would like to point out that the aggression from the teenagers was caused by the harbour master grabbing my 13 year old best friend by the thought and strangling him after being unable to pull his backpack off his bike what we are doing is harmless and is done at every other pier in the country no one has yet been harmed by said sharp debree