The Lazy Wall was a feature of life in old Salthill. It was situated opposite the Grand Hotel and beside the old RIC barracks. It would be roughly where the west-bound lane opposite where the BonBon is today. It consisted of a long concrete seat, boarded on top, backed by a stone wall. It was not very comfortable but it attracted lots of people, mostly tourists, most of whom were country people.
They were known as the Fámairí who traditionally arrived in September after their crops had been harvested. Most came from east Galway, also from parts of Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary and north Clare for their annual visit, so they would have known many of those who frequented the wall from previous years. They rented rooms locally in Barrack Lane, Beach Avenue and along the one-sided road between the Ballinasloe House and the Eglinton Hotel and they would use the family kitchen of the house. “You rented a room and ate yourself,” so they usually brought their own food in the form of home-cured bacon, fresh eggs, country butter, cooked chickens and cakes of bread.
They were determined to enjoy themselves, they found the fresh Atlantic air stimulating and physically rewarding, they regularly walked the Prom and a daily ‘dip’ was a priority. There was a men’s bathing place a mile west along the strand but the women were not expected to indulge in such unseemly adventures.
As one observer, harking back to the 1880s put it, “Every summer, numbers of women came in from the country to ‘take the salt water’ but their method of taking it, almost unbelievable in its incidence of stark discomfort, did not outrage the ethics of decency. When the sun was high in the heavens, those women advanced in some trepidation to the edge of the ocean and then, greatly daring, they sat down fully clothed in pools of water up to their waists. After wallowing there briefly, they emerged to recline on the strand to allow their saturated nether garments to dry out on their bodies. This Spartan ordeal was believed to be an unfailing cure or preventative for various pains and aches. I suppose it may have drowned off some of the fleas nestling in those layers of flannel petticoat but I cannot think it would have any other prophylactic affect.”
This vintage ‘ladies bathing place’ was only a few yards from the Lazy Wall, conveniently sheltered by the surrounding rocks and was safe and secure against accidents. The swimmers in their colourful costumes were an attraction to those passing by as they held hands in a circle and bobbed up and down, their uninhibited laughter and wild exuberance testifying to their utter enjoyment.
They came for the conversation, not the views. You might sit at the Lazy Wall for a while and depart with material for an Abbey play or several short stories, but there was a price, they did not tolerate dummies so you had to join in the chat … “I have so many acres and keep so many cows”, ‘I am married and have so many children, some going to school and some out of it’, “I am staying in such and such a place and am being charged so much”, ‘The crops are all sown and I will get back before the new meadow is fit to mow’. “Do ye kill a pig for the house?” “Is it light tobacco you always smoke?”
A man who went into Galway was horrified by the price of potatoes: “18 shillings a sack is it? Sure no potatoes are worth that, I well remember the first time they used to spray potatoes, there was all sorts of devices in them days”. “Rowl the day after sowing. Isn’t that what I’m saying. Rowl the minnit after. The rowler is the master stroke and no mistake”. “Is it tractor ploughing? You’d be better off without the likes of that. Lookit, if you let three or four hungry sows in a field, they’d do a better job for you and no expince”.
Loughrea poet, Seamus celebrated the Lazy Wall chat with a series of poems in his RANNS AND BALLADS collection, one of which is entitled ‘A Pinch of Snuff’ —
Well, as I was saying yesterday / we were lucky getting in the hay. Himself was sick, but sure John was there / and Patch sold very well at the fair. Cogar – Bríd is sure of old Pat Lynch/ Two hundred rich acres …. Have a pinch?
Ah, as to the shop and trade and beer / Thank God we never had such a year! A good many fine old neighbours died — / (All their wakes we sorrowfully supplied ), I’ve a side car now ….. ach …. Oh, Jim? / Well I think I’ll make a priest of him.
Our first image is of a busy Lazy Wall across the road from the Grand Hotel and dates from c1930. The second is earlier, c1900 and shows three Fámairí sitting on a bench against the roadside wall running from the Lazy Wall towards where Seapoint is today.
