Search Results for 'Bobby Coughlan'

Jimmy Cranny was born in Dublin in 1905. He was orphaned early in life, came to Galway when he was eight and it became his home from then on. He grew up to be a champion swimmer, a winner of the Prom Swim and a springboard diving champion of Connacht. He was a member of the Royal Lifesaving Society and became one of their first lifeguards. He later joined the Irish Red Cross.

It is interesting to meet someone again after a long period of time, especially someone with whom you spent five days a week for about six years, but that is what school reunions are all about. People will have inevitably aged and may have gained bellies, more wrinkles, their hair greyer than before, or maybe have no hair at all, so there is often a little tension mixed with the expectation of meeting them again. But the end result is generally delight at reviving old friendships, at the renewed camaraderie, at all the nostalgia, the memories of sporting occasions, the sharing of photographs and, of course, the stories about particular teachers. Indeed, some who were slogged or mistreated by teachers may use the reunion as a kind of revenge. Inevitably, some stories will have taken on legs — “The older we got, the better we were”. The reunion is also an occasion to remember colleagues who have died in the interim.

In 1925 there was a major debate in the Urban Council about a Garda report that two men from County Offaly who had been swimming in the sea in Salthill without any bathing costumes had been apprehended, and how the gardaí should deal with them. The debate was about the evils or otherwise of mixed bathing in Salthill.