In Dublin’s Fair City
You have to hand it to Dublin City Council.
For sheer crass stupidity they really take some beating.
For years now, Ireland has been in recession, and shopkeepers are doing everything in their power to entice the few that have the cash into their shops. A lot have failed and the shutters have gone up for the last time.
Now you would imaging that Dublin City Council would be doing everything in its power to help the shops along. It should keep its rates as low as possible by not squandering its cash reserves. It should be trying to entice people into the city to keep the remaining shops afloat.
So what is it doing?
Itâs are going to rip up Grafton Street which is the heart of the shopping district.
Grafton Street is pedestrianised, and only opens for traffic for a short while for deliveries. It is not a traffic thoroughfare. It doesnât matter is the surface isnât 100%. However, Dublin City Council are going to rip up the entire street at repave it at a cost of â¬2.5 million, which is cash which it doesnât have. The Council reckons it will take a year to complete the job, and during that year, access will be difficult even for pedestrians. There will be noise, dirt, dust and filthy great lorries trundling up and down. Jayzus but the shopkeepers must be only fucking delighted!
There are times when I honestly feel that I have entered some surreal parallel universe â a universe where normal logic is completely inverted.
Or maybe I have finally cracked and Iâm just imagining all of this?
Hold on a minute, did anyone ask the Trojan Horses Troika if we could do this?
Heh! I bet they didn’t. Now of course they are going to demand extra cash off us, seeing as we have money to burn?
No complaint about the free outdoor Wi Fi though ?
tt – Couldn’t care less about the WiFi as I will never use it. There again I couldn’t care personally about ripping up a street either. I just did a scribble on the subject to illustrate how daft this country has become. There seems to be a general disconnect from reality.
Once got very friendly with a woman who sold flowers on Grafton St. And I mean on the street, not in a shop.
By the way, another year gone by. St. Baldrick’s the coming weekend get yer heads shaved, and St.Patrick’s the following Saturday. Major party here in the U.S.
Where the gitls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone.
How the fuck would the “modern” Irish spell her name now.
Mallach Malogned – I suspect.
“Jayzus but the shopkeepers must be only fucking delighted!”
They are hopping fucking mad, This will only kill whatever little business they have left. It was bad enough with upward only rent reviews. The rental is more expensive than London’s Oxford St, a real shopping street.
The real question is, after they complete the renovation works on the street, will they then rip it up again to join the two LUAS lines?
Seems to me that you could keep a few chaps employed for a lifetime repairing the Eurobricks that are paved there now, instead of ripping up the entire street and disturbing store front traffic for a year. Somebody on the council is trying to keep a friends construction company afloat. Sounds like something they’d do here, Grandad.Â
tt – Sure we all know that you Merkan hijacked Paddy’s Day. Not that I’m complaining. You’re welcome.
Patrick – She would more than likely be a Sharon or Tracey. Or pick any flavour of a modern pop singer’s name.
Slab – You detected my very subtle touch of sarcasm there? I thought that Luas thing was going to go underground? In which case Grafton Street will soon subside anyway?
JD – The great golden word – “employment”. Doubtless that will be wheeled out for justification, ignoring the fact that probably twice as many will lose their jobs in the retail sector.
Is it some sort of job creation scheme? Are they going to use Irish-sourced paving stones? Would they consider erecting, along the lines of streets in central Hong Kong, raised revolving pedestrian walkways to enable people to move unobstructed along Grafton Street while the resurfacing project is going on?
@Patric
Molly – Maili/Maille/Mailsi
Malone –  Máel Eóin
One of the curses of pointless gentrification – repeated uprooting of cobbles, flags, tarmac, stones, grass, and repeat.
Ger – Raised pathways during construction? An excellent idea but much too high tech for Dublin City Council. And it’s unlikely they will use Irish stone, considering that they had to go to France to buy an electronic [and hideous] Christmas Tree.
Blacwatertown – It is a standard Irish process that whenever a road has finally received a decent new surface for the first time in daces, that immediately the Gas , Electric, Water, Sewerage and every other Tom Dick and Harry will suddenly remember that their services need a drop of maintenance.