Shivering Dublin bay swimmers slighted for their 'fancy fleeces'

Choppy waters as clash of newbie dryrobe types' with hardy' bathers swells into debate on tribes and snobbery

James Joyce opened Ulysses with a reference to the scrotum tightening" effect of swimming in Dublin bay, but these days there is a secondary, somewhat more visible effect: dryrobe bashing.

A boom in the popularity of sea swimming in Ireland has filled Dublin's bathing spots with people wrapped in fleece-lined hooded robes - and for some of the old-timers it feels like an invasion.