The Sandymount Chase

at

sandymount1sandymount2

Sandymount Strand, Sandymount, Dublin 4.

Ann Marie Boylan writes:

At lunchtime yesterday. FIVE of these went racing past. Gardai arrived soon after these were taken…

Update:

ringsend

A ‘Ringsend Car’.

Bickerstaff writes:

The vehicles in your Sandymount Chase post reminded me of the original ‘Ringsend cars’ once used to transport passengers across the soggy mudflats of Dublin Bay – a stretch described by one visitor as ‘one of the most horrible stinks of filth I have ever encountered‘.

The cars were simply made and consisted of a frame formed with an axle between two wheels and a bench supported on two shafts slung between them. A bumpy ride!

Francis Elrington Ball, in his History of Dublin, records extremely competitive races by the car drivers on Sandymount strand on their days off.

Pic: South Dublin Libraries

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46 thoughts on “The Sandymount Chase

  1. Manolo

    are they doing something illegal? I saw a motorcycle once going from Sandymount to Seapoint over the sand and nobody seemed bothered by that.

    1. scottser

      horses are only allowed on the beach before 11am and after 8pm down my way. (fingal)

      A Person/s shall be allowed to have, keep, ride or drive a horse/pony on a beach/foreshore during the period 1st of June to 31st August in any year before the hours of 11.00am and after the hours of 8.00pm.
      Persons are permitted to bring horses on a beach/foreshore all other days any time of the day during the months of :
      January, February, March, April, May, September, October, November, & December,
      Except on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays – between the hours of 11.00am and 8.00pm. (See Schedule 1 Attached)

  2. Mick Flavin

    The lads from the second photo were along the Grand Canal yesterday evening at as I was cycling home. The horse was spooked and kept weaving from the road into the cycle lane. They couldn’t stop it at the lights, so they broke two sets that I saw, including a very dodgy right turn onto South Richmond St.

    1. Annie

      +1 This is the tragedy. I suspect neither the children nor their parents have any clue what it takes to look after a horse. I’m glad the Gardai were called as the Strand is always busier on sunnier days and this smacks of an accident waiting to happen.

      1. Kieran NYC

        How anyone in the city of Dublin is allowed to own a horse is beyond me.

        It’s an effing horse.

    1. Wayne.F

      Janet here is the specific legal problem “1.No person shall take or allow to enter on a beach any animal which is under their ownership or control, during the hours of 10.00 a.m. and 7.00 pm June to September inclusive.”

      If the photos were take. During the hours above the individuals with the horses are breaking the law, regardless of their culture

      1. OldSchoolT

        Thanks Wayne F. So no dogs either then from 10:00am to 7:00pm. That’s a law that has never been broken.

    2. Wilhelm

      Here’s the thing, Janet, it does get busy during the week, especially with the weather like this. Tide in or out, there’s always a lot of small children with their parents. There are also a lot of elderly walkers. It has also been reported that one of the animals got spooked and the kids lost control over it. That’s an accident waiting to happen.

      Also, there is a riding school that brings their horses to the strand once in a while and parks the vehicle on the footpath at the Merrion Gates end of the beach (opposite the insurance crowd building) and there’s always a pile of steaming horse poop left on the footpath after them. They never clean up.

      1. B Bop

        Ah scoop it up & use for garden-nothing wrong with horse poo nor indeed proper horse riders! 30 years ago was a gorgeous sight to see horses being cantered regularly on Sandymount Strand-now with the Nit Pickers out against dogs & horses-it’s health & Safety BS.
        No’s obviously to drunken, dangerous sulky brats.

  3. Peter

    Saw this when I was out walking yesterday afternoon. When they arrived on the beach they were circling a bit and messing but one of the horses got spooked, turned sharply, flipped the two young lads off the sulky and ran loose around the beach for a little bit before the lads caught it – not ideal with young kids on the beach.

    The fact that they were drinking (and probably uderage) wouldn’t have helped their case either.

    Five gardaí (two squad cars and a bicycle) was probably a bit excessive, but shur don’t we all love a trip to the beach of a nice day.

    1. Annie

      Both the horses and the children would be a lot better off were the horses removed and taken to a place where they can be properly looked after.

  4. SLFCUltra

    These tax paying, family loving, peacemaking and environmentally friendly people are much better off in full view than in my back garden borrowing my much loved copper.

    1. Parky Mark

      What copper do you have in your back garden? Have you got an illicit still or something.

  5. Domestos

    It’s our McKinney, Texas moment. This level of outrage will alter how society thinks. Oh, wait…

  6. garthicus

    OT, but I was going past Seapoint on the Dart on Monday and saw five Gardaí standing around a body which was covered by a white sheet. There’s been no mention of it in any paper or online that I can find. Does anyone on here know anything about it? Just curious.

    1. B Bop

      Suicide likely…passed a car near Blackrock village a few years back…the guards were just closing road…the poor man had shot himself…not reported in media.

    2. Domestos

      Heard same, but the body hadn’t been covered yet. The cops had their forensic gloves on but didn’t look very panicked. As per B Bop’s comment, hadn’t heard it reported, so assume suicide.

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