I built my own huge 40 FOOT swimming pool on the farm to get through Irish heatwave – all for FREE
A MEATH farmer is swimming in hay after he built a makeshift 40 foot pool for his neighbours to cool down in as Irish temperatures continued to soar.
Michael Farrelly used 20 bales of hay and a silage cover for the temporary pool, which he filled with about 30 tonnes of harvested rainwater on his land at Carnaross on the hottest day of the year this weekend.
The outdoor bath is held in place with huge industrial grade bulk containers which are filled with 1,000 litres of water.
Michael, who is the joint owner of Killian's Lodge in Mullagh, said the pool fits about 30 people and was "well used" on Sunday as temperatures rose to about 24C in the village.
Michael said: "It was my nephews Thomas and Eamon Whelan who said they wanted to build a pool.
"So we got about 20 square bales around a perimeter in the field and put a silage cover in it to hold the water. Then we secured it further with IBC cubes."
Michael was able to use rainwater he had collected on the farm to fill the pool.
And he's hoping that the pool will last today as temperatures soar over 30C again.
Michael said: "I harvest rainwater on the farm so I used that to fill the pool using about two tanks. I'd say the pool is about 40 foot by 10 foot.
"I'm not sure how long the pool will last but even if we got today out of it without someone putting a foot through it or puncturing it, it will be great."
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He said they were non-stop on Sunday with pals and neighbours paying a visit to the pool.
Michael continued: "Sure all the neighbours are coming up for a dip or just to have a bit of fun. There was horrid craic here on Sunday."
And the public have been warned that today could be the hottest day of the year - after temperatures peaked at 29.3C in Dublin's Phoenix Park yesterday.
HEAT ALERT
Met Eireann chiefs said there'll be "exceptionally warm weather" nationwide in top temperatures of 27C to 32C.
A Status Yellow high temperature alert will remain in place until midnight.
Head of Forecasting Evelyn Cusack said today will be the "hottest day of the mini-heatwave" and "probably the hottest day of the summer".
She told RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland: "It's fair game, everywhere getting warm, sunny weather."
But she said temperature records will likely not be broken during the "extreme" weather.
She added: "We may not reach the 32C. The July record is actually 32.3C in 2006, so I don't think we're going to breach that.
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"That little bit of cloud is depressing it a bit. I doubt we'll breach the record, but we're going to get over 30, which is very unusual.
"Unfortunately, climate change is here. When we get the air masses coming up from Europe, we too will experience some extreme weather and extreme weather events."