How holiday tastes have changed! Skerries, that agreeable seaside town in north Co Dublin, once had its very own holiday camp, Red Island, writes Hugh Oram
Before people started going abroad on package holidays, many families from all parts of Ireland, including the North, as well as from the north of England, made their annual holiday pilgrimage to Red Island.
The camp opened on August 1st, 1947, when it was duly blessed by the local parish priest. Looking now at photographs of the place, it seems rather like an upmarket detention centre and indeed, local people promptly christened it "Belsen". The camp was the brainchild of Eamonn Quinn, brought up in the grocery business in Newry and the pioneer of the supermarket revolution in this part of Ireland with his "Pay an' take" shops. He was also the father of Feargal Quinn of Superquinn, who has often spoken fondly in the Seanad on the subject of Red Island.
Red Island was pricey enough for the time - £7 10s a week all in for a week in peak season. For their money, however, holidaymakers got all kinds of luxuries, such as central heating and hot and cold running water in the bedrooms. But in one anomaly that seems strange now, all the accommodation for women was on the first floor, while the men were relegated to the ground floor. Most of the 250 bedrooms had two single beds. But these proper bedrooms made Red Island a little fancier than the rival Butlins just up the coast at Mosney, with its chalets.
When it came to meals, holidaymakers were positively encouraged to take second and third helpings. Eamonn Quinn said the bracing air of Red Island made for healthy appetites, even if the menus in the dining hall were decidedly stodgy - not a garlic clove nor a pasta dish in sight.
A typical Red Island lunch menu included tomato soup, boiled ham, mixed veg, mashed potatoes, steam pudding and tea, coffee or milk. Especially for people from war-deprived Britain, the big, juicy steaks were a main attraction. However, the dining hall, which doubled for dancing, looked somewhat like a works canteen.
Also very popular were the unrationed sweets and chocolates from the camp shop. Cigarettes were a mere 10d for a pack 10. Ration books weren't required. Red Island had all kinds of other delights for visitors, including a cinema, guest concerts, fancy dress contests, talent shows, a roller-skating rink, miniature golf and tennis. Guests could also enjoy the lounge, with its two open-hearth fireplaces, or the sun verandah. Refreshments came from the bar and a soda fountain.
Excursions were laid on: 13/6d to Glendalough for the day or 12/6d for a day tour of north Co Dublin and Co Meath, as far as the Hill of Tara. There were plenty of thatched cottages in those days to back up the folksy image of Red Island and some still remain in present-day Skerries.
Eamonn Quinn was a great man for publicity and through the 1950s, Red Island had a 15-minute slot all to itself on Sunday evenings on Radio Luxembourg. On one occasion, he even put out a publicity booklet headed "Britain invades Ireland". Not long after Granada television started in Manchester, a young Feargal Quinn appeared on the station to extol the pleasures of he holiday camp. Young Feargal spent his teenage summers at Red Island, working as a waiter, a page boy or a bingo caller, whatever was needed on the day. He believes that being born into a family that runs a holiday camp is a wonderful way to grow up and get a good business education.
For his father, Eamonn, the highlight of his day was when someone came up to him and remarked: "Mr Quinn, I've had a great holiday. I'm rebooking for next year". Feargal's experiences at Red Island laid the foundations for his approach to customer service at Superquinn.
Red Island also drew local custom and the dances there were very popular with teenagers from around the Skerries district. In the 1960s, the Quinns allowed the Skerries rugby club to train on the lawns there, even though it couldn't have done the grass much good.
Changing patterns in the holiday market put paid to Red Island. In the early 1960s, package tours to Spain started and suddenly it was just as cheap to go to Spain as to a holiday camp in Skerries. The final blow came in 1972, when the troubles in the North were at their worst.
That year saw Bloody Sunday in Derry; then, as part of the widespread protests that followed, the old British Embassy in Merrion Square was burned down. The cross-channel holiday trade collapsed and so did Red Island, which shut its doors for the last time.
In 1980, the whole complex was demolished, so that these days, there isn't a single memento left of the old Red Island holiday camp, once so integral to an old-fashioned holiday tradition that's vanished forever, along with the meat and two-veg meals.