Blackrock Diving Boards, Salthill, Galway

Blackrock Diving Tower is an iconic structure of the Salthill promenade and is a ‘must do’ for most visitors to Galway. In 1885, a springboard was erected at Col O’Hara’s property much to his displeasure. He did everything he could to make it difficult for swimmers to get to the rock.

Eventually, he had the board removed but the Urban Council stepped in and managed to get a lease on a public right of way to the bathing area. The original springboard was replaced by a more elaborate affair for swimming and diving, which however was quite unsafe.After a near death of a diver in 1942, the diving boards were replaced by the diving tower that we see today at Blackrock. For a long time, Blackrock was a ‘men only’ bathing place. In the very early seventies, women began to swim at Blackrock, and it has been a ‘mixed bathing’ place since.

From an original acrylic painting