The closure of Coolock swimming pool has had a wide-reaching impact on the community

After Storm Darragh damaged the roof of the Coolock Swimming Pool in December the council closed it, leaving Learn2Swim’s students and instructors without a base, says owner Grace Hunt.

Hunt and her team of instructors had just under 700 children enrolled for lessons up until the unexpected closure of the pool, she says.

The kids aren’t getting lessons, the instructors have lost work. “There’s so many angles to come from with how it’s affected all sorts of people,” Hunt said.

“On a personal level, it’s affected me hugely in terms of having two young kids, a partner, and the mortgage to pay,” she said. “You know, our family has lost a salary.”

Hunt says she refunded the money that parents had paid her for future lessons, and is hopeful that there is still a future for Learn2Swim.

In a 12 March update to councillors, Simon Clarke, a senior executive officer in the council’s Sports and Recreation Section, said the pool’s “closure will be lengthy”.

Short-term alternatives

Asked what swimmers are supposed to do with the Coolock pool closed, the council has pointed to both short-term and long-term alternatives.

On 21 March, a council official wrote to councillors saying he had some “positive news”.

The memo said the council had reached out to other pools, in the hope that they could offer some pool time to the various groups who would usually use Coolock.

SportsLink in Santry had “responded positively” and made some hours available, Carty wrote.

However, when Social Democrats Councillor Jesslyn Henry posted that update on her social media pages, she says she swiftly received an email from Sportslink to say that “no such arrangement was made with anyone”.

Henry raised this with the council’s chief executive at Dublin City Council’s monthly meeting on 7 April. A reply suggests there may have been some miscommunication between Sportslink and the council.

Sportslink was not the only place the council contacted to try to find alternatives.

“We sent out an e-mail to three local swimming pools in February 2025, Sportslink, Trinity Sports and Leisure complex in Donaghmede and ALSAA swimming Pool,” Carty wrote. “Two swimming clubs were facilitated in Trinity Sports and Leisure complex in Donaghmede.”

The council also made contact with Markievicz Sports and Fitness Centre, in the south inner-city. Hunt’s Learn2Swim club was offered some slots in the Markievicz pool in Dublin 2.

She says she is very grateful for the offer, but that the hours unfortunately did not work for her and the parents of her students. Also, travelling to the city centre for lessons would not be feasible for many from her club.

Longer-term

In the longer-term, the council proposes to relocate swimming services from Northside Shopping Centre to a new swimming pool attached to the existing Kilmore Recreation Centre.

“A new leisure centre at the existing Kilmore Recreation Centre will replace the outdated stand-alone Coolock swimming pool,” the council’s Capital Programme for 2025 to 2027 says.

“A design team will commence work on the design in Q1 2025,” it says. There’s €150,000 in the programme for the project in 2025, €1.5 million in 2026, and €3 million in 2027.

Councillors were recently updated on plans for new Kilmore Leisure Centre development.

A feasibility study indicated an option for the “installation of a new 25m, six lane pool with associated changing village etc, a new gym and studio and a new reception area to link both the new pool facility and the existing recreation facility,” the 12 March update to councillors says.

The development, the memo says, would also include an option to install two all-weather MUGAs (Multi-Use Games Area) which would be “managed by Dublin City Council for use by the community”.

The damage done

The roof of the Coolock Swimming Pool, located on the top floor of Northside Shopping Centre for almost 54 years, was badly damaged during Storm Darragh on 6 December 2024.

The amenity was closed on Monday 9 December 2024, after inspection by a Dublin City Council Health and Safety Officer who determined that immediate repair work was needed.

According to a memo circulated to councillors on 12 March, the Dublin City Council Structural Engineer was working on a structural feasibility report for the building.

Initial findings were that the “glazing and the frames within the roof have reached its end of life” and need replacement, which requires “costly works”.

The issue was further compounded by the presence of “a large quantity of digital hardware on the roof”, with an investigation needed to understand how they can work around this hardware, or if it is feasible at all to do so.

These works, and negotiations surrounding them between Dublin City Council and the property management company for the building, are expected to be “lengthy”, the memo says.

Hunt, the owner of Learn2Swim, says the impact of the pool closure has been huge and she is still getting phone calls every day from people looking for slots for classes that unfortunately aren’t currently running.

“In terms of our ASD groups, they have nowhere to go now,” she says. “Some kids in our special needs classes have been with us for eight years. I feel awful for them that we’ve had to close.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.