Why two bags, not one
The swimmer bag goes through the changing village, sits on a wet bench, and comes home smelling of chlorine. The parent bag sits on a plastic chair in the gallery with you. Mix them and the highlighter is in a puddle, the dry togs never reach marshalling, and the start list is in a pocket nobody can reach from upstairs.
Your child's first Irish gala has the short checklist — eight lines so you are not empty-handed. This is the two-bag list: what they carry on deck, what you carry for a long Saturday, and what must not go home in the wet pile. Still deciding whether they should race? Start with Should My Child Compete Yet?
Irish gala packing in one sentence
Togs, hats, balcony. Fermoy, Athlone, Laser, and Kilkenny circle the same swimmer kit — and the same rule about you. Unless you are Team Manager, official, or on a named duty, you are not on deck. The child sits with the club. You sit in the gallery. Pack as if you cannot rummage in their bag at 10:47am, because you cannot.
US meet-bag lists assume you can hover poolside. Irish leisure centres do not. The spare hat in your bag is the one that saves the 50 fly. The spare in theirs is already at the bottom of a towel.
Do not follow them onto deck with a banana. Kilkenny: parents are not in the changing village, the showers, or on poolside. The Team Manager should not be hunting the building because you pulled them up to the seats.
The swimmer bag — what goes on deck
This is the bag they carry after they change. Label every hard thing. Irish poolside eats goggles and hats. Pack it on the kitchen table, not in the hall at 6:35am.
- ✓Two togs — one for warm-up, a dry pair for racing. A third if they have two sessions. Sitting wet for four hours is how they freeze before the 100.
- ✓Club hat, plus a spare. The club hat is the uniform. Hats tear on the block. You still hold another upstairs.
- ✓Two pairs of goggles, both tested in training. One leaks, they panic. Two pairs, they swap and go.
- ✓Two towels. One is a wet lump by lunch. A third in the car is not madness in January.
- ✓Flip-flops, sliders, or strapped sandals. Poolside is wet. School socks are not kit.
- ✓Club t-shirt or hoodie, plus shorts between races and into marshalling. Coverage over the togs is what Irish clubs ask for.
- ✓Dry change for the car — real clothes, in a plastic bag, not another damp hoodie.
- ✓Named water bottle, already filled. Deck is hot. Laser's notes say pack enough; dehydration is a Saturday problem, not a slogan.
- ✓Snacks that sit well: banana, sandwich, cereal bar, crackers, a few jellies. Not fizzy sweets at 9am, and not a breakfast they have never eaten. What belongs in the bag is this list; when to eat it between races is the other page.
- ✓Plastic bags for wet gear. Togs, towels, and the warm-up suit each get a bag so the racing pair stays dry.
- ✓Something quiet for the wait — a book, cards, charged headphones. They race for minutes and sit for hours.
- ✓Hair ties, extra cap for long hair, medication they use. Inhaler in this bag, not the glove box.
Tech suits are a separate question. If the meet pack bars them — common at age-group and schools meets — leave them at home. When (not) to buy one is tech suits for age-groupers.
The parent bag — what stays on the balcony
This is the bag club PDFs almost forget. You cannot go on deck. You will be upstairs for six hours. Pack as if the café queue is forty minutes and the wifi died in 2019 — because both are true.
- ✓Sharpie — black, not a dying blue — and a highlighter. Event, heat, and lane on the upper arm. Fermoy still lists both; Team Managers live on them.
- ✓Programme or start list. Buy the printed one if they sell it, or a photo of the WhatsApp PDF. Signal dies in leisure centres. Meet Mobile is a bonus, not a plan.
- ✓Spare hat and spare goggles that you hold — in a dry pocket, not "in their bag somewhere."
- ✓Extra snacks and water for you, plus a reserve for them. They will eat yours. Pack two lunches. Avoid greasy food and fizzy drinks — Athlone's guide is still right.
- ✓Phone, battery pack, and a cable. You will screenshot a scoreboard. The venue wifi will not help.
- ✓Cash or card for the programme, the club shop, and a sandwich when the packed lunch is gone. Some hat sales are cash only.
- ✓Layers. Deck is a greenhouse. The balcony is often a cold hall. A jumper you can take off beats guessing.
- ✓Wet bags, wipes, plasters, paracetamol. A spare pair of pool shoes if theirs walk off.
- ✓Your own book, and a seat strategy. Arrive early if the gallery is small. You are not bringing a camp chair onto deck.
Keep the spare hat, spare goggles, and the Sharpie in your bag. The child cannot fetch them from the balcony, and you cannot fetch them from a wet heap on deck. That is the whole point of two bags.
Who carries what
If it has to survive a wet bench, it is theirs. If it has to stay dry and findable, it is yours.
| Item | Swimmer bag | Parent bag |
|---|---|---|
| Racing togs, warm-up togs | Yes — dry racing pair sealed | A third pair only if you have one |
| Club hat + goggles | The pair they wear, plus one spare | The spare you actually trust |
| Towels, pool shoes, deck clothes | Yes | Dry change for the car if needed |
| Water and snacks | Enough for the session on deck | Your lunch, plus a reserve they will eat |
| Sharpie, highlighter, programme | No — paper dies on deck | Yes. Photo of the start list as backup |
| Phone charger, cash, plasters | No | Yes |
| The times | Never | On your phone — then out of the camera roll |
Spare everything
The pattern on every Irish club list is the same word twice: togs, hat, goggles, towel. The thing that breaks is the thing you only packed one of. Hold the second of the fragile items yourself.
| What fails | What it looks like | The spare |
|---|---|---|
| Hat | Tear on the block, or left in the last pool | Club hat in your bag. Most galas want the club colour on the block. |
| Goggles | Leak, snap, fog that will not clear | A tested pair in your pocket, not a new pair from the shop at 8am. |
| Togs | Warm-up pair still on at race time | Dry racing pair in a sealed bag. |
| Towel | One sodden heap by event 14 | Second in their bag, third in the car for January. |
| Start list | WhatsApp will not load, Meet Mobile empty | Printed programme, or a screenshot taken at home on wifi. |
Night-before packing, not morning-of
Laser's notes say pack the night before. Friday: both bags on the table, labels on bottles, arm numbers written, start list photographed. Saturday is warm-up, not a scavenger hunt. If this is a regional or Irish Age weekend, not one Saturday, extra dry kit and sleep is overnight and travel gala survival.
Confirm session and warm-up from the meet pack. Arrive about thirty minutes before they are supposed to be in the water — Kilkenny: warm-up is when they get wet, not when they park. Eat a breakfast they already know. If they are not coming, tell the coach so someone can scratch them. Unsaved scratches are how clubs get fined.
If a missing item would ruin the first race, it was packed last night or it lives in the parent bag. Goggles bought at the door are a story, not a system.
Balcony, not deck
Athlone: parents are not on deck unless they are on duty. Laser: spectators stay in the viewing gallery. Kilkenny: do not pull your child off deck without telling the Team Manager. That is not rudeness. It is how heats get marshalled.
Your job from upstairs is the programme, the cheer, and the spare kit at a break — not a commentary after every 50. Technical feedback is the coach's. Relays still happen; do not vanish because the individual swims are done. Pack your own lunch so you can stay.
If you are on duty — timekeeper, turn judge, assistant TM — pack layers you can peel, comfortable shoes, and more water than you think. That duty bag is still not the swimmer bag.
Sharpie on the arm
The Sharpie is not stationery. It is how a child finds the right chair when they cannot hear their name. Three columns: E, H, L — event, heat, lane — for every race that session. Fermoy still writes E12 – 50FR – H3 – L4. Write it the night before; check for a reseed in the morning. The full how-to is how to mark your swimmer's arm.
If you cannot yet read a start list, open how to read a heat sheet. The bag does not help if they are in the gallery during Event 7.
Times do not live in the wet bag
This is the part the club PDF will never write. You packed two togs and two hats. You sat on a balcony for six hours. They raced for four minutes. Someone will screenshot a result into WhatsApp and treat that as the archive. It is a picture of a scoreboard in a pocket that also contains a damp hat.
The wet bag is for togs. The programme goes in the recycling. Meet Mobile goes quiet when the host stops publishing — often within a week — and many Irish club galas never appear at all. Level 1 times never land on the public rankings. I built Finzy so last best is a list you own: event, course, time to the hundredth, date. Not a packing gadget. Not a results import. You type the swim. Rankings miss Saturdays. Your log should not.
Do it before you leave the car park. The numbers are still on your phone. Five lines: event, time, 25m or 50m, gala name. If you wait until Sunday night you will remember the PB and lose the ordinary backstroke that was not ordinary. If you leave the times in the wet bag, they live with the chlorine — which is to say they do not live.
A WhatsApp screenshot is how Irish families have stored first times for twenty years, and how those times vanish at a club change or a new phone. Never lose a PB is the longer argument. The packing-list version is shorter: pack the bags on Friday. After racing, log the times before you unpack. The wet bag can wait in the hall. The clock cannot.
Two bags. Togs on deck, Sharpie on the balcony. The times do not go home in the wet pile — they go in the log before you leave the car park.
