Mayo’s new city idea hijacked by Munster
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http://www.newcityforthewest.com/news/wespeojun04.htm
Mayo’s new city idea
hijacked by Munster
BY DENIS DALY
denisdaly@westernpeople.ie
PLANS put forward some years ago to build a new and beautiful city in East Mayo have been hijacked by interests who are pressing to have the new city in Munster.Galway-based, William A. Thomas proposed the East Mayo location to Government in 2000 and he says that to date more than 4,500 articles have been written about the proposal all over the world.
As well, he says, that some 100,000 people have expressed an interest in the new city by putting their names on a list for houses and some 1,345 major companies have expressed an interest in setting up in a new city.
William A. Thomas is now saying that interests in the South West have hijacked the plan and are putting forward the idea the new city should be built in Munster, in a location between Cork and Limerick.
This has annoyed Mr Thomas who says it is the wrong location for a new city.
He points out that several things are important in building a new city. Firstly, it must have international access such as an international airport close by, secondly it must be at least 800-1000 feet above sea level and, thirdly, given that Ireland is on track to have an all-Ireland government within the next 25 years, it must be located at least in the centre part of the country and not in the South in West Cork.
Mr Thomas adds that given the dire warnings about the gulf stream slowing down, NASA and other scientists have warned that Ireland’s temperature could go well below -40 degrees centigrade, so any new city must be a thermal-proofed city.
He says this proposal must be put out to international tender for design, for engineering, and for financing.
He adds that it must be a beautiful city and not reflect what has gone wrong with Irish cities today.
“You will always get crime where you have ghettoes. Any new city must incorporate excellent schooling, excellent social infrastructure and job opportunities for all,” he adds.
He proposes that the new City of the Sacred Heart be made a district as opposed to being within the domain of Mayo County Council.
He hopes the government would consider moving out of Dublin, given their evident desire to decentralise, and move into the new city.
There were wider possibilities also. The EU could move part of its operation to the new city and it was very possible the UN would move lock, stock and barrel out of New York to a new city in a neutral country.
Mr. Thomas insists the new city must be built and the only place for it is in East Mayo.
He hopes the people of the west and, especially those politicians who say they want to represent the west and want to see full employment and a quality of life better than in the US will now come forward and support the project.
Ends
The bit about the -40 degrees does it for me, I’ve never heard of a thermal proofed city not even in patagonia
It’s a pity the religious zealotry is so apparent – a new city for Ireland, properly planned and implemented would be an interesting concept! You would need an large area of low population but easily connected to good transportation.
Shannon was one of the few attempts at a new town in Ireland and is in need of a boost from something like a rail link to Limerick via Cratloe or Sixmilebridge and some aggressive planning and development.
The existing urban areas in Ireland are so shockingly planned, designed and developed the idea of a new city is very appealing to me – just not one called the city of the sacred heart.
so instead of mocking this guy’s plan (too easy really) let’s consider where a new urban area could be located in ireland with the best overall social and economic bang for the buck.
I agree with pretty much everything you have said DowlingM,
Dr Edward Walsh the provost of UL has made some very sensible soundings in this direction and given his record of turning a former NIHE in to one of the better Universities his remarks have a lot of weight for me. The reason I posted this article is simply because of the sheer shoddiness of the writing, can someone please tell me when Limerick moved to South Kerry because that is about the only way the hijacking could have been planned for West Cork.
I also totally agree on the Shannon rail link and wasn’t there some proposal by local Shannon interests to build a huge business park beside the airport and pay for a rail connection as part of the planning gain?
Dr. Ed was El Presidente when I was a UL student. He’s a little less popular with the chattering classes these days after he gave a lecture on single parents recently.
Don’t know anything about the Shannon thing (anyone out there who does?) I like a new alignment from Cratloe to Shannon because the Yanks can stop at Bunratty to buy their tat 😀
The boundary expansion of Limerick into Clare is always contentious but I feel Clare Co. Co. missed the point – they could have created a town on the Limerick fringe beyond Longpavement like Castletroy is now and had a development policy which promoted Cratloe and Sixmilebridge like Carrigtwohill and Midleton were by Cork CC but they blew it.
New cities are so terribly dull. They sound great but hardly anyone wants to live there… Think Brasilia, Canberra, that one in Malaysia, Milton Keynes. Boring! They become the butt of national jokes and usually are littlemore bureaucratic campuses. Whats wrong with the ‘cities’ we already have. Time would be better spent developing the current 4 (after Dublin) than listening to this Idiot of the Sacred Heart.
The problem, StephenC, is the dublin 4-ites are well funded me-feiners who don’t want property to be more available or cheaper coz it cuts into their property values etc. Reworking existing cities is necessary but bloody hard work getting it approved!
Imagine a city done right first time, with proper conduits for utilities so little/no road digging, mass transit infrastructure planned (if not built) from day 1, model for energy efficiency, waste minimisation, local recycling and innovative power sources – a low impact city.
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