Date night in Bundoran has taken a deadly turn.
Loved-up couples looking to sate their (blood) lust have taken to throwing an axe under the admiring gaze of their beloved and watching it spin until it sinks with a satisfying “thunk” into a wooden bullseye.
“It’s pretty hilarious to see how the other person gets on,” says Sinéad O’Connor, owner of The Rusty Axe tourist venue.
“And believe it or not, women are actually better than men at axe-throwing.”
Her novel venture is one of a growing number of new tourism businesses aimed at extending the traditional tourist season in the seaside resort in south Co Donegal. Her plan is to remain open this winter on reduced hours for the first time and to add archery next year.
“Women will really listen to the instructions on how to do it,” she says.
“The fellah will come in and he’ll think he’s going to be great at it because it’s an axe and he’s a man. Because he doesn’t listen to the instructions, the girl tends to beat him a lot. It’s always a funny one to watch.”
The Dubliner, who represented Ireland this year in Sweden at the Double Bit Axe World Championships, is often asked whether it’s dangerous.
Lethal weapon aside, the answer is: “No, we’ve never had any accidents.”
Australian surfer Noah Lane’s cafe, Foam, is another Bundoran business that would have previously shut up shop in September.
“We had a really proud moment a few years ago when we stayed open all year and that felt like a really big achievement to be able to offer people work year round in a volatile tourist industry,” he says. “That felt pretty good. It’s nice to be able to be open for locals as well.”
In peak season, Bundoran accommodates up to 12,000 tourists. Day-trippers can swell that figure to 30,000. Once the funfair crowds disappear at the end of August, the population drops to less than 3,000.
Surf instructor Owen Murphy remembers when winters in Bundoran meant empty streets. Since the Covid pandemic however, he says many Celtic Tiger holiday homes have been converted into family homes.
“They work from home, commute to Sligo. That’s more people going out for lunch, coffees. Thirty years ago it would have been shutters down for winter,” he says.
On a sunny midweek morning in October, Main Street feels leisurely. Londoner Darren McFarlane is selling fish out of the back of his van with Cockney good cheer. It’s still worth his while coming down from O’Reilly’s Fish Centre in Ballyshannon once a week in winter because “fish does sell quite well”.
“Trade does go down a bit but we keep going. Rain, showers, snow – we’re here,” he says with a smile.
After paying for her fish, South African retiree Patricia Daniel stops to chat. She and her husband bought a property nearby in 2014 and have been commuting between here and South Africa ever since, “like swallows”.
“We come April/May and then we go back in November. With Covid we were stuck here for the entire year. The winter was lovely. On Christmas Day I walked to the beach and there wasn’t a soul in sight. It was absolute bliss,” she says.
Across the road, Ocean View beauty salon owner Leann Dolan would normally have gone down to a four-day week by now.
“This year I’m still busy and it’s the end of October,” she says.
She loves the town in winter. “It’s not as hectic outside. We also lose our traffic warden in winter, which is great. You can park on the street for free,” she says.
Many people come to Bundoran in winter because it’s quieter, mainly senior citizens and golfers, she says.
“I would get their partners or wives in, while the men are golfing,” she says.
Inside Bundoran Golf Club, club secretary Kevin Carmody is reviewing the summer.
“All revenues are up,” he says.
When he first came here in 1985 “you could have put a gate at both ends of the town on the 1st of September”, but now he says the season has been extended considerably, thanks to local language schools, surfers and day-trippers from the North. The Border is just eight miles away.
“It’s only an hour’s drive from Derry, an hour from Strabane, Omagh; three-quarters of an hour from Enniskillen. People love to come to the seaside and walk around Rougey, the famous walk around the headland here,” he says.
“They will come down early, go for a walk, have a lunch, go to the amusement arcades – they bring quite a bit of life to Bundoran during the winter months. They’re good businesses, employ a lot of people and our northern cousins frequent them quite a bit.”
“God bless the North of Ireland people,” says local hotelier and Donegal GAA stalwart Brian McEniff in The Great Northern Hotel next door.
Filling his two hotels in Bundoran – the Holyrood Hotel is run by his son Seanie McEniff – in the depths of winter isn’t easy.
“It would be something that you have to go out and work at. It’s difficult now from mid-November to mid-February. That’s a hard sell so we would close for about two weeks around Christmas,” he says.
What’s the key to their survival over the years?
“We don’t overcharge, cut good deals and have offers at certain times of the year,” he says. “Those three months are very lean. We get by. We have learned a lot of skills in putting heads on beds.”
Back on Main Street, a tiny older woman huddles over a cigarette in the doorway of an amusement arcade. What’s Bundoran like in winter?
“Very cold,” she replies with a wide-eyed smile.
“And very few about except the locals but it’s quiet. It’s not a rowdy town. I’m a native. I lived here till I was 16; moved up north for work to Fermanagh.”
Her daughter joins us. They live together 40km across the Border and they like Bundoran “the whole year round”.
“Mum likes the slots, for an hour or so. Gets her out of the house,” she says.
“The northerners are the people that keep Bundoran going, without a doubt, summer and winter,” she adds.
“A lot of them have mobiles [homes], some have houses down here. Only for the people from the North there’d be no one at all.”
Inside the Olympic Arcade, more than 120 slot machines burble and bleep happily with the promise of exciting wins.
About a dozen older men and women are dotted around the casino, patting giant buttons over and over. They gaze deeply into the screens with the intensity of air-traffic controllers. These are manager Bernie Fox’s regulars.
“It gets very quiet come October, but the weekends will be okay,” she says, with the confidence of 54 years working in the business. Their loyalty dates back to the dark days of sectarian strife.
“During the Troubles they always came down to Bundoran,” she says. “That was the one place they felt they could come in and not worry, and they’d stay over,” she says.
“So many people are elderly now but they meet up with what they consider very good friends from over the years. There’s no talk of Troubles; it’s always very relaxing. There’s great friendships created here.”
Over in the Railway Bar, Raissa Gilligan has just served pints to a couple from Cavan on a midweek break. She appreciates the slot machines and the surfers.
“All the women go in there, and the men will pop over here and have their pint,” she says. “It just keeps the town going.”
The permanent fire she keeps blazing down the back is the first place the big wave surfers head for with their pints once the winter swells rise in November.
“We had people from Uruguay, from Chile, from Australia. They came in here and they’d have their après-surf.”
Anyone can surf year-round – the sea doesn’t close for winter after all – but the big-wave surfers wait for the perfect storm before flying in.
“Nature dictates when we get big swells,” says pro-surfer Conor Maguire.
“People from Hawaii and Australia come here for a month or two to get good waves. Winter’s kicked off pretty well here, there’s been good waves most days out, so everyone’s happy.”
Tomorrow: Noel Baker visits Glengarriff in West Cork
Source: The Irish Times · Sorcha Crowley in Bundoran
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