Ireland is getting warmer, say the experts. Could we soon see our own 'Riviera' filled with beach resorts, wonders Róisín Ingle
Brittas Bay is full of bronzed, thong-clad bodies; pavement cafes take up every inch of O'Connell Street; the multinationals have pulled out of Ireland because the natives are all taking this siesta lark a little too seriously; and Sky are busy filming the fourth series of Ballybunion Uncovered.
Welcome to the Ireland of the future when, if climatologists are to be believed, we could become one of the top beach destinations in Europe. According to the Community Climate Change Consortium for Ireland, research indicates a general warming in the climate in the years 2021 to 2060. The biggest increase in temperature looks likely in the south-east and east, with July experiencing the greatest warming.
At the end of the G8 summit researchers from eight European countries, who had spent three years estimating the impacts of extreme climate change, said the world could be up to 6 degrees warmer on average by 2100. On the flipside, we are likely to get much more rain in December, but who cares if the kind of summers we usually have to escape Ireland to experience are just around the corner.
With a few days of balmy Mediterranean weather this week, people were already forecasting a sunny future in a country where it would be like this all the time. There will be tapas on tap instead of the Sunday roast, obviously; and Guinness will be replaced by Sangria as the national drink. Perhaps Mná na hÉireann will all stop shaving under their arms in an attempt to achieve that classic continental look. Summer disco hits will be unearthed, not on the dance floors of Ibiza, but in places such as the Bondi Beach nightclub in Dublin.
Traditionally our summers have been full of "lovely girl" competitions and bachelor contests, but some people will be hoping the hot weather encourages organisers to introduce swimsuit parades when the air conditioning breaks down. Or maybe one of the glamorous new resorts peppered around the coastline, havens for sun-loving celebs, will launch a film festival to rival Cannes. In this new climate anything is possible.
Naturally, we will still be obsessed with the weather, commenting constantly on it and refusing to believe that the days when one good week constituted our summer are behind us. It will still be compulsory to make small talk in elevators about the temperature and the humidity, telling all colleagues not wearing dark coloured clothing that they are "looking very summery today".
SOME PEOPLE ARE already claiming that, if you look closely, Ireland is just a Mediterranean country in disguise. "The Irish Riviera has been a favoured Irish holiday destination for years," claim
the folk at
www.theirishriviera.com. "Set right in the centre of the sunny south coast of Ireland, the Irish Riviera is perfect for holidays in Ireland." It continues: "Warmed, year round, by the Gulf Stream, we have a climate that is comparable to Cornwall in England". Not to be outdone, the Dún Laoghaire homepage explains how the business and voluntary sectors have come together to establish a new company called "Dublin's Riviera". "The new venture will ensure that the area from Booterstown Marsh to the estuary of the Shanganagh River will take its rightful place as Dublin's Riviera". In years to come this will no doubt present a troubling holiday dilemma to families across Europe: "The Côte d'Azur or Booterstown Marsh, darling? I just can't decide".
In fairness, we are not the only ones hijacking the Riviera for our own marketing purposes. Any country with a reasonably scenic stretch of coastland has slapped "Riviera" on its brochures and hoped tourists won't notice they aren't actually in Italy or France. There's the Bulgarian Riviera, the Californian Riviera and even the British Riviera. Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York is known as the "Irish Riviera" because in the summer it was traditionally a favourite destination of white cops and their families.
Realistically, it will be our grandchildren who will reap the benefits of any climate change, but the idea that a Mediterranean Ireland could be around the corner is truly heartwarming. Knowing our luck with the weather, we will probably experience the bleak scenario described by Met Éireann forecaster Gerald Fleming, which is that the Gulf Stream, responsible for our usually mild climate, might no longer reach as far north.
"A reasonable if less likely scenario in this case is that our climate becomes a lot colder right through the year giving us weather more like British Columbia than the Riviera," he says.