Portrush

Published on July 3rd, 1991 Photograph by Peter Thursfield irishtimes.com/archive

THE TIMES WE LIVED IN:THE PAST TWO decades have been something of a rollercoaster for Portrush and Portstewart on the north Antrim coast. 'The last resorts', as the headline on an Irish Times feature from 20 years ago put it, 'before Iceland'.

Changing holiday preferences and political uncertainties have conspired to challenge these neighbouring resorts, which - like many traditional seaside towns all around Ireland's coastline - have been fighting against a long and vertiginous slide into shabbiness and neglect.

Irish Times writer Robert O'Byrne was certainly not impressed by Portrush when he visited in the summer of 1991. The town's noisy streets, he observed, were 'packed at weekends with some of Northern Ireland's most enthusiastic chip-eaters' and its 'fine old neo-Tudor railway station' had been turned into a nightclub called 'Tracks'. He was less disapproving of next-door Portstewart, whose two miles of golden strand 'oozes genteel respectability'.

The folks pictured on this fairground ride in Portrush are taking an altogether more cheerful view. They appear, in fact, to be having a whale of a time. The squeals of the girls in the front row are clearly audible. In the row behind, Dad sits with arms folded while Mum's hands are raised - either on the way to cover her eyes, or to make a grab for her daughters. Some passengers clutch their restraining straps in delight.

Others gaze at the ground, wishing - perhaps - that they'd never left it. The daredevils in the back row are in seventh heaven.

And why wouldn't they be? Portrush - from the Irish Port Rois, meaning 'promontory port' - is spectacularly located on a mile-long peninsula which extends northwards into the Atlantic, offering panoramic views of the Causeway Coast, the hills of Donegal and even, on a fine day, Scotland.

This would be a good summer to get out, belt up and give our custom to Ireland's hard-pressed coastal resorts. Seventh heaven awaits. And if that's not reason enough to get yourself to Portrush, how about the Irish Open Golf Championship, going on up there this very weekend? Posh enough for you? Arminta Wallace