Shelley Banks — the Beach

Standing on the beach with my name
High tide at the beach with my name. Shelley Banks, at Dublin’s Shelley Banks (or Shellybanks) Beach

Across the harbour from Dublin, there is a beach with my name. The Shelley Banks, or Shellybanks.

I hadn’t realized I was a landform — or that I was perhaps named for one, so I’ll accept it as a coincidence of history and geography that we found this in Ireland, my great-grandparents’ homeland.

“I am a rock,” sings Paul Simon.

I am a beach.

We visited on a rainy October day, when the tide was high and Kittwakes and red-billed Oyster Catchers clustered on thin strips of sand, feathers fluffed and bodies turned against the wind.

Published by

Shelley Banks

Writer, editor, photographer.