Liffey Cable Cars – Pointless Gimmick or….

Here’s a computerised image of the scheme:-

And the story that goes along with it:

Plan for cable car attraction on Liffey
Frank McDonald and Ruadhan Mac Eoin
Saturday, February 4
A private consortium is proposing to develop a cable car service along the Liffey Quays in Dublin, running between Heuston Station and Docklands.
The cable cars would transport sightseers at heights approaching 80 metres (264ft) above the river from the Guinness Brewery near Heuston to a terminal located near the planned national conference centre at Spencer Dock.
Aimed primarily at the tourism market, the cable cars would give people a birds-eye view of many of Dublin’s landmarks, including the Custom House, the Four Courts, St James’ Gate Brewery and the National Museum at Collins Barracks.
Each of the four cable cars would have capacity for 25 people and the duration of a trip in either direction would be around 20 minutes.
It is anticipated that most passengers would travel by cable car one-way and make their return by other means.
Currently the ticket price is estimated at €15, which the promoters say compares “very favourably” to other attractions such as the London Eye which costs over €17 per visit.
The €52 million project, which is headed by Dublin property developer Barry Boland, would involve erecting four giant steel towers – two of them significantly taller than Liberty Hall and the other two almost as high – along the three kilometre route.
The towers, designed by architects McGarry N

Totally gaga. It’ll end up like that slimey clock.

And an opinion piece by Frank Mc D on the same –

Daring plan inspired by London Eye

The proposal for cable cars along the Liffey is a sensational example
of lateral thinking, writes Frank McDonald

For decades, Dublin has been divided by the River Liffey, with the
northside and the southside glowering at each other over its murky
depths. But now there is a daring plan to celebrate the river,
bringing the two sides together in a quite remarkable way.

The proposal to run cable cars over the river between Heuston Station
and North Wall Quay, just west of Spencer Dock, is designed as a
tourist attraction rather than a transport service.

But like all bright ideas, it is a sensational example of lateral
thinking. Developer Barry Boland, of Beaux Walk Properties Ltd, has
been working on it for a year and earlier this week presented it to
senior Dublin City Council officials, including city manager John
Fitzgerald. Their response, not surprisingly, was enthusiastic.

It was inspired by the success of the London Eye, which generated some
£60 million (€88.28 million) in revenue last year, according to Mr
Boland. His cable car project would also be run as a commercial
enterprise, but its thrill-seekers would be “going somewhere”.

The plan has its challenging aspects – not least the installation of
four giant “towers” along the river to support the cable lines. But as
conceived by architects McGarry Ní Éanaigh and engineers Roughan
O’Donovan, these are light and elegant structures.

Both firms have good track records. McGarry Ní Éanaigh designed the
lighting masts in Smithfield, as well as the highly successful Liffey
Boardwalk, while Roughan O’Donovan designed the Luas bridge in Dundrum
and the Boyne bridge outside Drogheda.

One of the principal objectives in the project, fully costed at €52
million by quantity surveyors Bruce Shaw, was to minimise the visual
impact of the support structures. This has been done by limiting them
to four, instead of cluttering up the riverscape.

Two of the steel towers – at the end of Marlborough Street and in
front of the Civic Offices at Wood Quay – would be 85m high, while the
other two – west of Watling Street bridge and Custom House Quay –
would rise to a height of 55m.

With some 2,000 juggernaut trucks expected to vanish from the quays
after the port tunnel opens later this year, Dublin City Council is
about to start work on a new framework plan for the river – and the
cable car proposal could become its most exciting element.

Chief planner Dick Gleeson and city architect Jim Barrett are
certainly enthusiastic about the plan, which they see as a dynamic way
of stitching the city together along the spine of its main river –
though, obviously, it still has to go through the planning process.

Mr Boland cites figures showing that Dublin had 5.8 million visitors
last year, with an average stay of 4½ days. But he says all of the
city’s attractions are static, including the Guinness Storehouse,
through which 740,000 trooped up to its Gravity Bar.

One of the terminals would be located within the Guinness Brewery on
Victoria Quay, a short walk from Heuston Station; the other just west
of the planned Calatrava bridge, some 50m from the site of the
national conference centre at Spencer Dock.

Two new pedestrian bridges are being “thrown in free gratis”, as Mr
Boland says. One would be located on the axis of Marlborough Street
and Hawkins Street, providing an obviously needed link, while the
other would span between Ormond Quay and Wood Quay.

Swiss manufacturer Doppelmayr Garaventa, which makes most of the
world’s cable cars, are so enthusiastic about the project that they
are going to invest in it. Mr Boland is banking on the likelihood that
Dubliners and visitors to the city will be equally electrified.

(c) The Irish Times

I find the whole thing very strange and frankly I can’t see the point of it. But if permission were granted for this, it would be an indication that the city planners would be prepared to alter the riverscape for ever by installing towers which would enable four cable cars to carry about 100 people in total along the river. Well if they would be prepared to do that, why not go the whole hog and install a system like the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal, Germany.
http://www.u-bahnen-in-deutschland.de/wu/wuppertal-gallery.htm

Frankly I think it’s a terrible idea, visually ugly (using Smithfield’s torches as a good example of McGarry NiEanaigh work is laughable) and I hope it doesn’t go ahead.

The cable car that goes out to Dursey Island in Cork (the only one in Ireland I believe) is used by both locals and tourists, but don’t you think that one every 20 minutes is a bit in-frequent? It would make more sense to have twice as many cable cars capable of carrying ten people every 10 minutes, that way, people wouldn’t have to wait very long on a cold and wet Irish day.

NO NO NO NO

Would clutter the quays, obscuring all architecture……. Will be poorly maintained and financially unviable

No No

Too much money now in the country no sense….

I also think if you go to this extraordinary amount of trouble, it should have some utilitarian aspect and have more than just two stops and two cars. Other cable car systems, for instance New York’s Roosevelt Island system or Barcelona’s, cater for both tourists and local residents.
It’s quite easy to still charge high prices to non-residents (a la the boats in Venice) by having regular users apply for a travel card of some description. I’ve been on both of the cable car systems I mentioned above, and think part of their charm is that ordinary people can use them.
The people behind this have also gone to quite a bit of effort to ensure the pylons are at the most visually uninteresting parts of the quays, which I think is important.
And speaking of gimmicks, what ever happened to the plan to float a balloon above the Liffey. That seems to have sunk without a trace, and like this one, was being endorsed by Frank McDonald.
Anyway, in conclusion, I’d be in favour of the plan but I think the number of trams should be doubled or trebled and there should be at least one more stop.d

and the passangers will be able to look down and see the _spirit of the docklands_ also “reimagining the river in a creative and exciting way”

I was reading this yesterday and going ‘this is a joke, isn’t it?’ Later in the day I thought maybe I was imagining what I’d read – checked the paper again, but no it was true ….

I’ve nothing against imaginative ideas, and the Liffey does need imagination, but sorry I just think you couldn’t do this to a river running through the middle of a old city. Maybe in parts of the Docklands it would be good, but definitely not in the historic area.

In your opinion is the suggested cable car system along the river Liffey in Dublin a pointless gimmick that we don’t need or a good example or how imagination can make Dublin a better place to live?

Plan for cable car attraction on Liffey
The Irish Times

A private consortium is proposing to develop a cable car service along the Liffey Quays in Dublin, running between Heuston Station and Docklands. The cable cars would transport sightseers at heights approaching 80 metres (264ft) above the river from the Guinness Brewery near Heuston to a terminal located near the planned national conference centre at Spencer Dock. Aimed primarily at the tourism market, the cable cars would give people a birds-eye view of many of Dublin’s landmarks, including the Custom House, the Four Courts, St James’ Gate Brewery and the National Museum at Collins Barracks. Each of the four cable cars would have capacity for 25 people and the duration of a trip in either direction would be around 20 minutes.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0204/158080939HM3NEWSSTORY.html

Aren’t these the guys who promised the rail spur for Shannon airport as a tool to get a huge retail development in Shannon before the spur evaporated?

I had to look at my calendar to check that it was not April 1st. The big difference between the Roosevelt Island cable car and that proposed for the Liffey is that the former traverses the river and is primarily used by residents (cost is a subway token) and the latter is for tourists, will cost $15 and follow the river’s route. Why bother? Why not use boats? I though a boat service had started on the Liffey? Paris has its bateaux mouches, the East River has cruises, and for a while there was a river taxi service; that stopped due to lack of use, but that was due to a mixture of cost ($9 versus $3.50 for the East Side Shuttle or $1.5 for Subway) and only 2 stops (57th St. and 96th St.) which were too limiting. Looking at the roundy cablecar pods I can already hear it being called Dublin’s “pie in the sky.”
KB2

Surprised at Frank McDonald backing this awful idea. And does he describe everything he likes as ‘sensational’?

One word comes to mind: “Monorail”.

@phil wrote:

One word comes to mind: “Monorail”.

Anybody else ever see that Simpsons episode? 😀 😀 😀

It’s hard to see the “lateral thinking” angle that Frank McDonald is going on about. The cable cars that I’ve seen have been used to ferry people across a chasm (e.g. Dursey Island was mentioned earlier on) or to carry people up a hill (e.g. somewhere like the Zugspitz in Germany or any ski lift you care to mention). In both of those types of case, the cable car is necessary or at the very least extremely useful.

How does building a totally unnecessary cable car which will only function as a tourist attraction constitute “lateral thinking”:confused:

@Seamus O’G wrote:

How does building a totally unnecessary cable car which will only function as a tourist attraction constitute “lateral thinking”:confused:

That is a good question. It seems that the new thing in the DCC is to talk about improving “East – West permeability” in the city centre. The cable car is meant to be part of this plan, but is probably the single worst idea (or at least up there in the top 5) of the last 10 years. What really bothers me about it is that it has no real practical function for the citizens of Dublin, but will be visible from all over the city. I am not against tourism, and understand its importance to urban economies, but to build something that will be so dominant on the skyline, yet of no great benefit to the common good is ridiculous.

Personally I feel that a combination of a

‘figure of eight luas’

1. The interconnector

1. Dedicated cycle lanes on the quays and Dame St

Would acheive more; having said that they are as works of design quite attractive

U G L Y

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I think somtimes we’re too critical. We give out that there’s no imagination ever being shown among Irish business and then when it is shown we all give out about it. Personally I don’t think the cable car format as is earns acceptability but at least it is imagination and they shouldn’t be attacked for that. It should be encouraged, but that doesn’t mean the first idea is always the right one. Back to the drawing board with this one I’d say.

Also, how come the poll has 3 negative answer options and only 1 positive?

This looks bloody awful. What happened to the ballon idea at Temple Bar?

This looks bloody awful. What happened to the balloon idea at Temple Bar?

I like the idea of a cable car but I don’t like the planned route. It would look terrible and should stay away from the historical areas. I would be in favour of it if it were confined to the docklands.

A simpler and more practical idea, why not just dredge the Liffey and clean out the muck and pollution. Clean the remainder of the quay walls. Touch up the bridges again. Be consistant and plant trees in a symmetrical fashion along the quaysides and put fecking boats on the river.
The time in the slime wasn’t a bad concept really, it was just executed very badly.

Gas how there seems to be a willingness to put up all sorts of aerial clutter…pylons, cables, masts, poles, satellite dishes,chimneys etc…. throughout the city, yet when a building over 4 storeys is proposed there is a large hoo-haa about it.

@Thomond Park wrote:

Personally I feel that a combination of a

..and the rejuvination of West Morlan Street and College Green.

🙂

Just to expand on what Niall said earlier: no NO NO NO

Demonstrating just how farcical a proposal this is, I thought the thread’s removal from Ireland was down to it being a practical joke after all, and that it had been deleted :rolleyes:

Whatever about the historic city core, any city would be destroyed with such muck draped across its skyline – what a hideous concotion it is. Talk about one-off house syndrome that F McD so vents on about – building a structure to capture a view only to devastate the very landscape the vantage point is being built on.

It’s an ugly idea, a pointless idea in contrast with other tourist possibilities, and a fundamentaly stupid-looking one. A small Irish city, as flat as a pancake, barely rising above five storeys, with cable cars strung above it in some sort of techno-space-age-Jetsons fantasy for the benefit of camera clicking tourists.
What an embarrassment.
Dump it now City Council before you end up with a Grattan Bridge II of mammoth proportions.

The poll is very biased as it was set up to try and force people to vote against it. I am disapointed by the barely hidden subtext of the poll which is not what I have come to expect from this normally open-minded forum.

Why was a simple “Yes/No” poll instaed of a tabloidesque editorial in the guise of a poll?

I think it is a really good idea and it won’t cost the taxpayers anything. It is not a public transport project and does not pretend to be either, and were some people are getting this from is beyond me!

It’s an inovative tourist project and this is how it should be seen.

why didn’t they show the bit where people get on or off, does the car do a vert or is there a big spiral staircase?:rolleyes:

aha – now you’ve hit the nail on the head, there’s probably two office blocks at either end, the cable car is a trojan horse 😉

Just like the rail spur for Shannon Airport that evaporated once the Shannon Sky Court was built,

same company I feel a Vega City play coming on

https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=2504&highlight=vega+city

However in fairness they did at least get a semi-decent design for the cable car supports even if it required a rope ladder for access 😉

See that was my thought immediately – Vega City II

This is just personal speculation, but perhaps there are no spiral staircases on with ends, and the cable car returns to street level or near at both ends? This is what cable cars were designed to do – steep vertical accents and decents. No reason why the cable from the most eastern tower makes a steep incline down to Spencer Dock (same at the other end)?

This to me would add to the sense of theater to the project. Think of the the way the lift at the Liffey Strorehouse enters the Gravity Bar from within the darkness and on to the roof of the city. I had taken this lift a few times and in every case there was a collective “gasp” from the tourists and they suddenly find themselves above Dublin. The same effect would be achieved by this. Being a Dubliner I would love to see the city from this.

I would life to see a scale model of the towers in relation to the city scape. Frank MacDonald is no moron and he is right behind this. Maybe he knows more about it than we do, and he has see more of the design than the one image of the tower behind the Four Courts.

I must say I am amazed at the ultra conservative reaction to this project. Dublin City centre can hardly be called “historic” in any real sense. Certainly not compared to many other European cities. We are not running this through the centre of some elegant fully in-tact baroque street scape. Has anybody had a look at the Liffey banks? It’s hardly Venice or Bruges! Look at it this way, the few historic buildngs such as the Four Courts, Customs House, Christchuch can be viewed from a whole new aspect looking down upon them from a nearby distance.

@Cute Panda wrote:

I must say I am amazed at the ultra conservative reaction to this project. Dublin City centre can hardly be called “historic” in any real sense. Certainly not compared to many other European cities. We are not running this through the centre of some elegant fully in-tact baroque street scape. Has anybody had a look at the Liffey banks? It’s hardly Venice or Bruges! Look at it this way, the few historic buildngs such as the Four Courts, Customs House, Christchuch can be viewed from a whole new aspect looking down upon them from a nearby distance.

What exactly do you mean by describing Dublin as not being “‘historic’ in any real sense’? One of the attractions of Dublin for many visitors is its sense of history. that ability to be able to see the remnants of different ages juxtaposed. Visitors can wander through the streets and get a sense of being in an unfolding history as oppossed to what is basically a museum like landscape such as Venice or Bruge.

Cities like Dublin, which have been born of the river, take their essential legibility from them. This is why it is so important that the Liffey is respected. Take the Thames in London for example. The lenght of the river is dotted with various features: Canary Wharf, Tower 42, The Gherkin, St Pauls, Parliament Buildings and the London Eye (to which this cable car claims its inspiration). This is what gives it its legibility. The wanderer in the city, whether tourist or citizen, sees these features and starts to understand how the city is unfolding around them. The Placing a cable car running over the natural axis of a city (any city) would take away the visual impact which it is trying to view in the first place. This is why the London Eye works so well. It is relatively inobstusive, allows the tourist to view the city from a variety of gradually altering perspectives, but yet does not detract from the rythm of the cityscape.

@phil wrote:

What exactly do you mean by describing Dublin as not being “‘historic’ in any real sense’? One of the attractions of Dublin for many visitors is its sense of history. that ability to be able to see the remnants of different ages juxtaposed. Visitors can wander through the streets and get a sense of being in an unfolding history as oppossed to what is basically a museum like landscape such as Venice or Bruge.

I have travelled fairly extensively and Dublin to me looks about as historic as Boston. There is little of the city over 200 years old. Most of the city centre starts around 1880’s onwards when you really look at it as a whole. Apart from a few churches here and there, Dublin does not feel much more overly historic than a lot of cities in the New World and I am talking Quebec, Savannah, Havana etc. Dublin also has a huge amount of late 20th trash buildings. Claiming Dublin is mainly a visually historic city is a bit like claiming that Irish is a living and vibrant language.

I really do not see how these towers are anymore horrible than much of the 1960’s kitch which already lines the Liffey. What precisely would these towers visually ruin which has not already been ruined decades ago?

If we have beautiful historic quays lining the Liffey I could understand the negative reaction these towers are inciting, but I really don’t get why so many people are horrified by this project to the level they are – except perhaps the old Oirish fear of anything new and unique. We are hardly an innovative or dynamic culture – we are the boiled cabbage eaters, the conservative clods on the fringes of Europe wagging his finger at anything which manifest from outside the pre-determind box we are all so comfortable locking ourselves into. As Joyce said “the centre of paralysis” and all that.

I am not saying I do not respect people’s reasons for being so against the cable car idea, but I am amazed as the explosion of viceral repulsion it has unleashed on this normally well balanced forum. The same hostile reaction to this idea is no different than the residents groups and NIMBYs walking around the construction site of a 5 storey building with “NO SKYSCRAPERS HERE” scrawled on a sheet of cardboard looking and acting hysterical for no reason.

@phil wrote:

Cities like Dublin, which have been born of the river, take their essential legibility from them. This is why it is so important that the Liffey is respected. Take the Thames in London for example. The lenght of the river is dotted with various features: Canary Wharf, Tower 42, The Gherkin, St Pauls, Parliament Buildings and the London Eye (to which this cable car claims its inspiration). This is what gives it its legibility. The wanderer in the city, whether tourist or citizen, sees these features and starts to understand how the city is unfolding around them. The Placing a cable car running over the natural axis of a city (any city) would take away the visual impact which it is trying to view in the first place. This is why the London Eye works so well. It is relatively inobstusive, allows the tourist to view the city from a variety of gradually altering perspectives, but yet does not detract from the rythm of the cityscape.

I am sorry, but I honestly have no idea what you saying here. I read it a few times and all I am getting is subjective analysis. You’re rationale in the above paragraph why this would not work in Dublin borders on a form of civic theology rather than a good argument against the cable car idea. You’ll have to do better than that.

Forgive me, I am simple man and I like cable cars and I think it would be neat to take one along the Liffey. I am sure many people would like to do the same. It looks like fun. Sorry, but that is how it is, this idea actually appeals to me, and as a taxpayer won;t cost me a penny and I don’t see how the towers along the Liffey are anymore horrible than some of the junk already there.

If the towers are too high, then build taller buildings in Central Dublin rather than retreating in a Georgian Society ostichifaction state based on a shallow argument that the Dublin quays are masterpieces of civic beauty when they are in fact lined with all manner of ugly shite already.

Holy crab. I leave town for a week (no newspapers, no internet) and return to this? What’s been going on in my absence?

I voted ‘No’ on count 2, but it could have been any of 1, 2 or 3- the reasons have been outlined above by others. Just to add- wasn’t Barry Boland the scheming chancer in ‘Bachelors [sic] Walk’?

Monorail Monorail Monorail… indeed.

If they want to build this, build it up Howth head or Bray Head, let the tourists admire the coastline.

“If we have beautiful historic quays lining the Liffey I could understand the negative reaction these towers are inciting, but I really don’t get why so many people are horrified by this project to the level they are – except perhaps the old Oirish fear of anything new and unique. We are hardly an innovative or dynamic culture – we are the boiled cabbage eaters, the conservative clods on the fringes of Europe wagging his finger at anything which manifest from outside the pre-determind box we are all so comfortable locking ourselves into. As Joyce said “the centre of paralysis” and all that.”

Well said Cute Panda. The quays as far as I am concerned are the ugliest and most inspirationally devoid area of central Dublin. They are drab bland and should be levelled (apart from notable exceptions) to make way for something befitting a capital city and not that of a provential town. As you say it’s not as if this proposition is going to architecturally churn through beautiful street scapes. I think somewhere like the quays needs all the help it can get. Debates on this forum on the whole, tend to be caried out with the utmost objectivity generally, but ocasionally when something new and inovative is proposed a great many posters seem to revert back to form and play the “Historic skyline card”. There seems to be a strong train of thought predominent in Dublin that if a building predates a certain era then it should be protected at all cost which is ridiculous. And as you say if the surrounding buildings are too low, then build higher ones. In terms of architecture which predates the 20th century -If it’s drap knock it down – it’s it’s not, keep it. Dublin is a city on the similar scale (size) as somewhere like Brussells or Amsterdam and not a “small Irish city” (Somewhere like Cork, Kilkenny or Limerick fit this bill) buildinds and streetscape should reflect it’s urban nature. And central Dublin apart from the quays which look provential fit this role. Apart from levelling the quays and building them up which is my ultimate preference, any suggestion which changes the boring nature of what we currently have should be welcomed.

I totally disagree in relation to the Dublin Quays and would say that between Georges Quay and Merchants Quay with a few notable exceptions that the area has bennefitted from extensive regeneration.

No major decision on the Dublin Quays should be made before the Port Tunnel opens and I very much doubt that even a senile despot like Fiddle Castro would consider such a project for Havana or comparable new World City.

@Thomond Park wrote:

I totally disagree in relation to the Dublin Quays and would say that between Georges Quay and Merchants Quay with a few notable exceptions that the area has bennefitted from extensive regeneration.

No major decision on the Dublin Quays should be made before the Port Tunnel opens and I very much doubt that even a senile despot like Fiddle Castro would consider such a project for Havana or comparable new World City.

I should have been more specific. I’m talking about west of O’Connell bridge.

So am I in the main the area as far as the Four Courts with the exception of one site that has an excellent competition winning design (Gilroy McMahon 1999) there are no gaps and it is a decent tapestry of buildings that in the majority respects and does not detract from its Historical context.

@Cute Panda wrote:

I have travelled fairly extensively and Dublin to me looks about as historic as Boston. There is little of the city over 200 years old. Most of the city centre starts around 1880’s onwards when you really look at it as a whole. Apart from a few churches here and there, Dublin does not feel much more overly historic than a lot of cities in the New World and I am talking Quebec, Savannah, Havana etc. Dublin also has a huge amount of late 20th trash buildings. Claiming Dublin is mainly a visually historic city is a bit like claiming that Irish is a living and vibrant language.

What I am pointing at is how it is not a city that can be labelled as being of one time. Its fabric has been built up and replaced over the years, but still shows traces of its past. I was arguing against your belief that only cities that are of some specific historical time period are somehow more important than others.

Your argument about the Irish language makes no sense to me. If I was to make comparisons between Dublin and a language I would not compare it to one that I felt to be dead. That is the very point I am making, Dublin is a living city, not one that is maintained to give the illusion of some specific time period. I am not disputing the construction of this cable car on the grounds that it will impact on older parts of the city, but that it will have a negative impact on the city as a whole.

I really do not see how these towers are anymore horrible than much of the 1960’s kitch which already lines the Liffey. What precisely would these towers visually ruin which has not already been ruined decades ago?

What 1960s kitch are you referring to? For many, it is the 1990s pastiche that is more of a problem.

If we have beautiful historic quays lining the Liffey I could understand the negative reaction these towers are inciting, but I really don’t get why so many people are horrified by this project to the level they are – except perhaps the old Oirish fear of anything new and unique. We are hardly an innovative or dynamic culture – we are the boiled cabbage eaters, the conservative clods on the fringes of Europe wagging his finger at anything which manifest from outside the pre-determind box we are all so comfortable locking ourselves into. As Joyce said “the centre of paralysis” and all that.

What, therefore, is the point of putting up a cable car that will overlook the quays if you dont seem to think they are of any visual or historic value in the first place?

I am not saying I do not respect people’s reasons for being so against the cable car idea, but I am amazed as the explosion of viceral repulsion it has unleashed on this normally well balanced forum. The same hostile reaction to this idea is no different than the residents groups and NIMBYs walking around the construction site of a 5 storey building with “NO SKYSCRAPERS HERE” scrawled on a sheet of cardboard looking and acting hysterical for no reason.

I genuinly don’t think this is NIMBYism. The reason that there is such an explosion against it on this forum is that posters here, who seem to be from all over Ireland and abroad, are thinking of its impact on Dublin as a whole, not simply in terms of their area. That is the difference between this and other projects. It is not an isolated project, it is one that has far reaching consequences for the entire city.

I am sorry, but I honestly have no idea what you saying here. I read it a few times and all I am getting is subjective analysis. You’re rationale in the above paragraph why this would not work in Dublin borders on a form of civic theology rather than a good argument against the cable car idea. You’ll have to do better than that.

Basically what I am saying is that I dont see why something should dominate an entire cityscape of Dublin that is of no real benefit to the city whatsoever. There is obviously some form of subjective analysis involved as it is based on my opinion, as your views are also.

In terms of doing something with the river, as already stated by Thomond Park, it is all dependent on the opening of the Port Tunnel. At that point a better analysis can be made of exactly what would benefit the river area of the city for both citizens and visitors alike.

@phil wrote:

Basically what I am saying is that I dont see why something should dominate an entire cityscape of Dublin that is of no real benefit to the city whatsoever. There is obviously some form of subjective analysis involved as it is based on my opinion, as your views are also.

Fair point, but judgeing by the letter about “Suas” in the Irish Times today there is most certainly some bizzare notion out there that this project is a public transport project when it is nothing of the sort. In fact, I am starting to think that many Irish commentators do not even consider Luas to a public transport project and see it as a gimmick for the tourists!

I can agree with some of your points and see were you are coming from but I think there is a real OIRISH mentality when something like this is announced and there is an instant be-littling simply based on the fact that it has not been done before.

I really do think this would serve a purpose. It would be fun for the tourists who want to come to Dublin and do more than get shitfaced in a Temple Bar pub. That would be its purpose. We can’t depend on alcholic abuse/publicans to be the entire backbone of the tourist industry in Dublin. Dublin is a terrible city for family vistors and this would be for them.

I welcome the idea, understand were Frank MacDonald is coming from, but I agree this will never be built. Dublin is a “living city” of British high street shops, Celtic jerseys, Leprecaurn hats, drunken stag parties, no public transport, but we have to mantain the integrity of the city’s unique culture by not building this cable car…

God forbid!

@Cute Panda wrote:

I can agree with some of your points and see were you are coming from but I think there is a real OIRISH mentality when something like this is announced and there is an instant be-littling simply based on the fact that it has not been done before.

With respect most of those speaking out against this are the same people who ridicule the ingredients of Oirish culture such Temple Bar pubs; City West Hotel; JR style bungalows; plastic paddies; the molly malone statue

@Cute Panda wrote:

there is a real OIRISH mentality when something like this is announced

Indeed this project in itself is a real modern OIRISH concept: vulgar, flashy, built for a quick buck by the private sector, and with little consideration for both its wider and longer term environmental impact.

If it’s so beneficial to the city then why isn’t the City Council proposing to build it as a nice little earner for itself?

@Graham Hickey wrote:

Indeed this project in itself is a real modern OIRISH concept: vulgar, flashy, built for a quick buck by the private sector, and with little consideration for both its wider and longer term environmental impact.

If it’s so beneficial to the city then why isn’t the City Council proposing to build it as a nice little earner for itself?

u hit the nail on the head!…

this is a really stupid idea the way to see a city is to walk around it not pass over the roofs of it.

so here is the right location: from the new science museum west of heuston, likely to become a major attraction for families, to phoenix park, already a major attraction for families, with a great view down the liffey on the way.

I fully agree with those opposing this scheme, however not through a sort of “Oirish” kneejerk reaction. Those who oppose the scheme can clearly see the complete compromise of some of the city’s most historic views with prominent support towers- towers which serve a private individual’s business venture as opposed to the public good and facilitate tourists to observe yet simultanously destroy the city’s skyline.

The idea of a cable car system over an almost fully flat city in which it will itself become the most prominent feature just doesn’t work. However, I agree the poll is clearly biased and should be simply yes or no- for a start since it’s a private venture I don’t think anyone should be too concerned about the “waste of money”.

so here is the right location: from the new science museum west of heuston, likely to become a major attraction for families, to phoenix park, already a major attraction for families, with a great view down the liffey on the way

thats not a bad idea notjim, some sort of cable car system might be a runner there if the pedestrian / cycle bridge from the royal hospital doesn’t go ahead.

but seriously, what a whacko plan for the liffey, haven’t replied till now cause i’ve been doing double takes for 5 days looking at that image 😀

I think its a great idea. Why is the Dublin crying out for such economic structure. Obviously it will boost the tourism sector and how many people can honestly say they would not once try it out?

apparently the liffey boat isn’t doing great business although I put a wager on the cable car being quicker then a bus up the quays during rush hour

Nonsense – No one can doubt the importance of tourists to cities these days nor the leisure aspect of the city centre for the citizens of that city but this is nonsense. To erect would be to shoot ourselves in the foot – the intrusion of a private Disneyfied carbuncle of zero utilitarian benefit for the city and defacing the reinvigorated Liffey quays / campshire. No problems with sending it out and about in the docks but not in the historic core – indeed might be quite supportive in the docks area if there was some transport benefit. A gimmic!!!!!!!!!! Shane

This poll is a little misleading considering there is 3 negative options and just one positive one!

@Radioactiveman wrote:

This poll is a little misleading considering there is 3 negative options and just one positive one!

LOL!!! Bang on there Mr Radioactiveman – I think many a politician would be proud of such spin! And the one option in favour of this is in italics!! Comical!!!!

The one you have voted for is in italics. Three options against does not negate the fact that only 12 percent voted for the yes option.

“Apart from levelling the quays and building them up which is my ultimate preference, any suggestion which changes the boring nature of what we currently have should be welcomed”

Well there’s a sustainable proposal if ever there was one….

It is important in this context to point out that in general bad cases do not make good rules. So if there are parts of the quays which are poor, pastiche or 60s calamity, this would not in general be an argument for making the situation worse. Many architects & planners, Frank MacDonald included have campaigned for the reconstruction of the quays in the past decades.

Cute Panda exhibits appalling ignorance on the subject of Dublin, which was conceived & built as the second city of the british empire during the georgian period (pre-1880). It retains a considerable number of setpieces dating prior to the 1880s, Trinity College, Four Courts, Customs House & Bank of Ireland included, not to mention several uniquely large residential squares. Back to school for you I’m afraid. It never ceases to amaze me how confidently some people will talk about things of which they clearly know very little. I’ve been to Boston which I particularly dislike because of the amount of pastiche it includes, it has a far less continuous structure & was never within reach of the standards reached by Dublin at the time it was principally constructed. I have recently visited Montreal which is a great city & I doubt they would allow such a thing in the Vieux Port.

I oppose this in its current form because of the visual impact of the supports primarily. It also seems wasteful to build a structure rather than using the normal methods of becoming airborne, light aircraft, balloons, jet packs, rockets, whatever ! There’s something in the idea, perhaps Docklands/ Dublin Bay …the millenium wheel II, but not this.

I’ll tell you what, lets fill in the liffey with concrete & build a runway…!
Madness.

Does anyone know did anything ever happen to this hare-brained scheme?

I’m just trying to find out what happened to the project, after the initial support expressed by the City Council, the DDDA, and Guinness. Frank McDonald also seemed to approve of the scheme, in the articles earlier on in the thread. Anyone know?

An Bord Pleanala Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) Cases Week ended: 8th June 2007
Local Authority: Dublin City Council
Case reference: 29NPC0014
Case Type: Private Development S.37B consultations (Pre-App Consultation)
Description: Proposed Suas Cable Car Transport System to run from Heuston Gate area to Dublin Docklands providing a tourist facility along the River Liffey, Dublin City, Co. Dublin.
Category: Strategic Infrastructure Dev
Date lodged: 08-06-2007
Applicant
Type: Prosp. Applicant
Name: The Liffey Cable Car Company Ltd.
EIS required: No
Status: Case is due to be decided by 26-10-2007

ABP’s recent decision of 25 Oct 07

PC0014 Dublin City Council
Proposed Suas Cable Car Transport System to run from Heuston Gate area to Dublin Docklands providing a tourist facility along the River Liffey, Dublin City, Co. Dublin.
Case reference: PL29N.PC0014
Case type: Pre-Application Consultation
Decision: Is not Strat. Infrast. Dev.
Date Signed: 25/10/2007
EIS required: No

Parties
The Liffey Cable Car Company Ltd. (Prosp. Applicant)
Dublin City Council (Local Authority)

History
25/10/2007: Is not Strat. Infrast. Dev.
08/06/2007: Lodged

Hopefully this one is a dead duck, lets get some buildings up before we start building items like this, it reminds me of Alton Towers in England

@CC105 wrote:

Hopefully this one is a dead duck, lets get some buildings up before we start building items like this, it reminds me of Alton Towers in England

It hasn’t gone away you know…

From yesterday’s Irish Times –

Cable car project to seek city council sanction

The Irish Times

Mr Boland… had wanted the cable cars to be in the shape of a pint of Guinness, but this violated advertising codes.

OMG 😮

I am just after noticing this now. Who said that this was a pointless gimmick…

This cannot possibly go ahead. It will impinge on views of The Clarence.

@grahamh wrote:

this Cannot Possibly Go Ahead. It Will Impinge On Views Of The Clarence.

Lmao 😀

Sinn Féin’s Daithí Doolan said it was good to see a project that was “trying to do something with the Liffey”.

I’ve a suggestion for Doolin; why doesn’t he organise the World’s 1st Liffey Swim With Concrete Flippers – he can be first in…

25 lids a trip – guess it won’t be an attractive alternative to the Luas then.

shame they’ve abandoned the pints of guinness idea though, that would’ve ruled!

sombody make this go away …
please !!!

This and Gormley’s Pissing Man. How naff.

😡

@hutton wrote:

Sinn Féin’s Daithí Doolan said it was good to see a project that was “trying to do something with the Liffey”.

Presumably he meant ‘to the Liffey’ rather than ‘with the Liffey’? :rolleyes:

I’d like to see something done with the Liffey- how about a good clean, a tidal barrier and a management plan to ensure bullshit concepts like this don’t make it out of the heads of maniacs?

Nature abhors a vacuum- but why must it be left to the lunatic fringe to fill that void?

“the sort of iconic thing that Dublin lacks”

oh this terrible desire for “a sort of iconic thing”; a new expression of a time-old insecurity.

Isn’t it always the case that a good city, one with life and quality writ both large and small, finds itself assosiated with a “sort of iconic thing” as a sort of shorthand for what people love, the greatness comes first, not the icon. People love London for its great architectural set-pieces, its treasures, its playfulness and quirky off-beat fashion and its multi-layered, multi-historied, multi-cultural liveliness. Big Ben, the Eye and the funny red buses are a shorthand for that, a synecdoche; they are not the thing itself. Putting a giant ferris wheel, a big clock and funny buses in Milton Keynes wouldn’t make people love Milton Keynes instead.

Lets make Dublin a great city and we’ll find the spire and the hapenny bridge and the current liffey will make fine a fine “sort of iconic thing” and, yes, perhaps others will come along, commisioning high quality public art, for its own sake is useful here, but lets not make icons our primary concern.

@hutton wrote:

The Suas would be a tourist attraction rather than a public transport system, Mr Boland said.

“We’re trying to create the equivalent of an Eiffel Tower, the London Eye or the Sydney Opera House – the sort of iconic thing that Dublin currently lacks.”[/I]

you can have both in one but not with a suas…
the equivalent is the spire nuff said…

I’m abit miffed about how he needs DCC City Manag permission because some of the site is on DCC land…
Is this hinting to the fact if something is on public land you can apply for permission without DCC consent???

He had wanted the cable cars to be in the shape of a pint of Guinness, but this violated advertising codes.

I cannot believe people like this exist in the world. Capitalist opportunism at its worst. …???….wtf

“We’re trying to create the equivalent of an Eiffel Tower, the London Eye or the Sydney Opera House – the sort of iconic thing that Dublin currently lacks.”

What he fails to note is that none of these were designed to be ‘iconic’. OK, the OPera House was designed to look good, but the first 2 were in fact built as temporary structures but became iconic and so got to stay.

You just can’t sit down and design something iconic.

This plan is bollox. Crass & tacky.

Further thought – The Eiffel Tower & The London Eye were designed as temporary structures for major events. Maybe we could have a temporary Suas for the Eucharistic Congress in 2012. If Suas becomes iconic it can stay, otherwise it has to come down 🙂

I’m only back from Sydney and anyone who has seen their public transport network will agree with me that its more than amazing. I’ve been to Melbourne a few times and thought theirs was good ’til I saw Sydneys. The best part of it is the monorail loop system. It would be more than perfect for dublin in terms of minimum disruption on the ground, minimum digging up roads etc, all electric, and it can follow the course of streets and buildings that are already there. All of the stations are built into shopping centres etc. With some planning they could be incorporated into new builds. Has it been considered before? much better than any cable cars

monorail is a waste of money… trams are only good up to certain distances… Sydney has too many buses…

I read that it was going to be 25 euro return.
Eh?
Its doomed to end up in receivourship and totally out of context with the city.
Its
Just
Wrong

maybe Sydney has got too many buses, but after using a lot of their public transport i was never left waiting for a bus so maybe we could learn something from them

I think this is an excellent, unique and daring idea. Whether it goes ahead or not we need more of this thinking in Dublin.

Wouldn’t it be a bettter reflection on the city if Dublin had some sort of integrated public transport system as seen in every other European capital city than this sort of nonsense.

@darkman wrote:

I think this is an excellent, unique and daring idea. Whether it goes ahead or not we need more of this thinking in Dublin.

because a cable car along the length of river is good thinking????

@lostexpectation wrote:

because a cable car along the length of river is good thinking????

Its original. Im not really interested in this particular project’s merits. I just think its refreshing to see new ideas.

@darkman wrote:

Its original. Im not really interested in this particular project’s merits. I just think its refreshing to see new ideas.

but it doesn’t make any sense, its stupid.

Is there any truth in story that the inspiration for this idea came when waiting for the bill at the Bad Ass Café. As regards what the cars should look like? What about dustbins? The idea is farse (spelling intentional)! On a saner note – why can we not wash the quay walls once in a generation like other cities? On a last point does the photo on the home page remind anyone else of a priest? Or is it just me?

Why not dredge the damn river of junk while they clean the walls !!
It’s disgraceful to see the state of the river bed during low tide at King’s Bridge…..and it has been like that for decades. Surely for the sake of the Tourist Industry alone, it cannot be a bad idea to employ personnel to clean things up on a regular basis. Tourists in those Cable-Cars would have admirable views of the riverbed from up there!

Hmmm….

That bike could be used for missions related to the “How well do you know Dublin” thread.

Thanks for posting that, Gunter…:p

That’s not a Muddy Fox ATB by any chance? edit-just notced it’s actually a Giant looking at the frame shape-tells how disgusting that riverbed is that no one has tried to salvage it!.

Whilst working as a courier a while back one of my more eccentric colleague’s cashed his paycheck, went to Mary street and bought a kids dingy, a chinese and a six pack and headed off from Ormond Quay to the IFSC with the whole ensemble- including the bike -on board.He was arrested at Spencer Dock for having the temerity to actually get some amenity value from the river…

@tommyt wrote:

That’s not a Muddy Fox ATB by any chance? edit-just notced it’s actually a Giant looking at the frame shape-tells how disgusting that riverbed is that no one has tried to salvage it!.

The tyres seem to be holding up particularly well. A decent sized hook on the end on the end of a long rope – followed by a hosing – could see that thing back on the road in no time.

There are also enough traffic cones down there to keep training going for a few soccer clubs, should the FAI ever run out of money.

Cable cars over the liffey? Where do we think we are, Barcelona? Please please do not let this go ahead, the river is narrow, filthy and would ruin our view of the quays completely.
All i can picture is an RTE news report outside the Four Courts with Cable cars whirling past and passengers waving and gurning from the windows…
Build more LUAS lines pleeeeease

@darkman wrote:

Its original. Im not really interested in this particular project’s merits. I just think its refreshing to see new ideas.

in a first year esquisse kinda way.

as an aside, please please please can “journalists” stop comparing the height of things to liberty hall – drives me round the twist. When did that kip become the measuring stick for all things “tall”

eh since it’s been the tallest building in the city for 40 years. What should they say – 19 times the height of a Georgian Terrace, 24 times the height of a suburban Dublin bungalow. It;s the benchmark for the city.

Also why are people conflating this issue with transport. This is a tourist attraction not a transportation mode.

@alonso wrote:

eh since it’s been the tallest building in the city for 40 years. What should they say – 19 times the height of a Georgian Terrace, 24 times the height of a suburban Dublin bungalow. It;s the benchmark for the city..

But alonso ins’t this is why we built the spike?

ah yes but the spike is not a “building” is it? And Liberty Hall is far more appropriate for the particular brand of scaremongering these comparisons normally form part of coz it’s just so bloody awful looking these days

all the more reason to stop drawing attention to it.

Breaking News

Amidst the gloom of projects stalling, Dubliners will be glad to hear that one project is set to go ahead – albeit now in a slightly revised form…

meoooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

your kidding?

@hutton wrote:

Breaking News

Amidst the gloom of projects stalling, Dubliners will be glad to hear that one project is set to go ahead – albeit now in a slightly revised form…

@lostexpectation wrote:

your kidding?

I had thought I was, yet regrettably my perverse sense of humour has been matched only by a perverse sense of reality:

Cash in place for liffey cable car

By Cormac Murphy

Friday July 10 2009

THE COMPANY behind the Liffey cable car proposal has the money in place to fund the project, it has been revealed.

Despite the difficult economic conditions, the Liffey Cable Car Company is ready and able to proceed with the €52m ‘Suas’ scheme.

And the firm is even planning similar projects in other cities in Ireland and in New York.

The ambitious proposal would see cable cars gliding over the Liffey at heights of 80 metres.

All the company needs is the go-ahead from Dublin City Council after it lodges a planning application and it can proceed, said Paddy Duffy, who has been working with the company on the plans.

The tourist attraction, which is inspired by the London Eye, is the brainchild of developer Barry Boland.

“Mr Boland is not looking for any public money at all. He has the sizeable amount of money necessary for the project already in place,” Mr Duffy said.

“The next step would be to approach Dublin City Council, to see if the officials will support it. That is where the project is at the moment,” he added.

The company is looking to hold pre-planning consultation meetings with the local authority.

If given the go-ahead, Suas will run from Heuston Station to the Docklands.

A presentation of the plan was made to the economic special policy committee earlier this year and was well received by councillors, Mr Duffy said.

“The team was very heartened by the positive reaction of the engineering committee of the council when they presented it to them,” he added.

comurphy@herald.ie

– Cormac Murphy

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/cash-in-place-for-liffey-cable-car-1816070.html

must be looking for publicity ‘cos there’s more chance of Elvis Presley crashing a UFO into the Loch Ness monster than of this being approved.

@hutton wrote:

Cash in place for liffey cable car

By Cormac Murphy

Friday July 10 2009

THE COMPANY behind the Liffey cable car proposal has the money in place to fund the project, it has been revealed.

Despite the difficult economic conditions, the Liffey Cable Car Company is ready and able to proceed with the €52m ‘Suas’ scheme.

And the firm is even planning similar projects in other cities in Ireland and in New York.

The ambitious proposal would see cable cars gliding over the Liffey at heights of 80 metres.

All the company needs is the go-ahead from Dublin City Council after it lodges a planning application and it can proceed, said Paddy Duffy, who has been working with the company on the plans.

The tourist attraction, which is inspired by the London Eye, is the brainchild of developer Barry Boland.

“Mr Boland is not looking for any public money at all. He has the sizeable amount of money necessary for the project already in place,” Mr Duffy said.

“The next step would be to approach Dublin City Council, to see if the officials will support it. That is where the project is at the moment,” he added.

The company is looking to hold pre-planning consultation meetings with the local authority.

If given the go-ahead, Suas will run from Heuston Station to the Docklands.

A presentation of the plan was made to the economic special policy committee earlier this year and was well received by councillors, Mr Duffy said.

“The team was very heartened by the positive reaction of the engineering committee of the council when they presented it to them,” he added.

comurphy@herald.ie

– Cormac Murphy

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/cash-in-place-for-liffey-cable-car-1816070.html

So who is Mr. Paddy Duffy???

Well being the helpful sort, hutton thought is might be informative and add just a little bit of background information…

When not penning Fianna Fail anthems titled “The Man They Call Ahern”, Paddy gets around…First from the Irish Times last year when the scandal broke as to the Fás junkets:

@Irish Times, front page wrote:

Associate of Ahern flew twice to US as Fás guest

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

COLM KEENA and ELAINE EDWARDS

PADDY DUFFY, the close associate of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern,
travelled to the US as a guest of Fás in 2004 and 2006, although he
had no official role with the authority.

The cost of Mr Duffy’s trips – one of which cost €4,562 – was charged
to the Fás Science Challenge project, which spent over €600,000 on
transatlantic travel for the director general of Fás, Rody Molloy, his
wife and senior Fás executives in a four-year period.

As pressure grew on Mr Molloy yesterday in relation to expenditure
controls at Fás, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he knew Mr Molloy to be an
excellent public servant.

“I have every confidence in him,” Mr Cowen said. Fás is the national
training authority and has an annual budget of €1 billion.

Mr Molloy said on radio yesterday that the expenditure was related to
the Fás Science Challenge programme which links up Irish students and
apprentices with top science institutes in the US, including the Nasa
space centre in Florida.

Mr Molloy said a $942 game of golf at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
Resort in Orlando in January 2005 was part of a process of developing
relationships with people in the US.

He also defended the expenditure of $410 at a beauty and nail salon in
Cocoa Beach, Florida, in August 2005. “Getting into detail of the
preparation of somebody for a particular event, again the amount of
money in terms of the total package is very, very small,” he said on
RTÉ’s Today with Pat Kenny show.

Fine Gael spokesman on enterprise Leo Varadkar, called on the Tánaiste
and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan to
“back or sack” Mr Molloy and his board. Documents released to The
Irish Times by Fás under the Freedom of Information Act show Mr Molloy
travelled to the US 11 times between November 2003 and November 2007,
with his wife accompanying him on five occasions. The total cost was
€67,917.

The majority of the flights cost several thousand euro, with a flight
for Mr Molloy to Houston in April 2007 costing €8,966.43.

In November 2007, a Fás executive and his wife flew around the world
at a cost of €12,097. “The individual in question, who was at an event
in Tokyo, on official business . . . then at his own expense spent
some time on the way back coming back through the US,” Mr Molloy said.

Mr Duffy was flown to Atlanta, Georgia, in January 2004 at a cost of
€4,562. The cost of a 2006 flight for Mr Duffy paid for by Fás, this
time to Florida, is not known.

Mr Duffy, who acted as an adviser to Mr Ahern up to 1999, is now a
public relations consultant. He told The Irish Times he was heavily
supportive in a voluntary capacity of the Science Challenge, and was
invited by Fás on both trips. Fás is currently the subject of an
inquiry by the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/1125/1227486547029.html

Secondly from the SB Post:

@Sunday Business Post, 2002/03/31 wrote:

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/03/31/story395283728.asp
Second episode involving former advisor
Sunday, March 31, 2002
By Pat Leahy

Paddy Duffy has been associated with Bertie Ahern for much of the Taoiseach’s political life, but this is the second time in three years that he has caused him severe embarrassment.

Duffy resigned from his post as a special adviser to Ahern in June 1999 when it was revealed that he had been been a director of a public affairs and lobbying company, Dillon Consultants, for a number of months.

Dillons had advised NTL, which had bought Cablelink from the state, and Duffy had attended meetings between the Taoiseach and representatives of NTL.

Duffy’s versions of events later differed from those supplied by Dillons.

Duffy said that his installation as a director of the firm was due to mistake and misunderstanding, although he himself had signed the necessary form which was lodged in the Companies Office.

It later emerged that the company had described him as one of `our people’ and boasted of his political connections months before he signed up as a director. The Public Offices Commission later found that neither Duffy nor the Taoiseach had complied with their obligations under the Ethics in Public Office Act.

Answering questions on the matter in the Dail, the Taoiseach described Duffy’s version of events as “so stupid it is probably believable”.

Although Duffy did not reveal it at the time, he was also a director of a company called The Right Word. Since his departure from government he has developed The Right Word into a successful public affairs consultancy. He has recruited a number of former political and civil service employees to work with him in his Harcourt Street offices.

According to the company’s website, Duffy and co “have worked at the very highest levels of government and the public service and the private sector . . . . they know intimately how government and business work, how policies are determined and put into effect.

“[The company is] keenly aware of . . . the broad remit there is to democratise and make accessible channels of government decision-making . . . The programme pace and impact, [sic] are always those desired by the client.”

The Right Word declined a request from The Sunday Business Post for information about its clients last week. It refused to say whether it numbered any publicly-funded bodies among its clients.

Before joining Ahern as a full-time operative, Duffy was a teacher and the founding principal of a gaelscoil in Ashbourne, Co Meath. He joined Ahern in the Department of Finance as press officer, and when Ahern became party leader in opposition Duffy held the title of chef de cabinet.

He became special adviser on Ahern acession to the Taoiseach’s office, working principally in the areas of cultural affairs and speechwriting.

He also composed what was for a time the Fianna Fail theme tune, The Man They Call Ahern.

And thirdly, from Phoenix:

What rent are they paying?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4197938.stm

I still reckon he was right on the 1916 house, the value of that historical event was the willingness to sacrifce one’s blood not where one may or may not have been arrested.

But on this project not even €4m a year rent would justify it

Well if they can avoid ruining vistas or making this whole thing unsightly, I don’t see why people are so opposed to it. People always complain that Dublin just copies other cities. Well this is pretty original. If they did it in London and it was a success, lots of people would be in favour of it, though it would be accompanied by bitching to the effect that Dublin can never do anything original.

@rumpelstiltskin wrote:

Well if they can avoid ruining vistas or making this whole thing unsightly, I don’t see why people are so opposed to it. People always complain that Dublin just copies other cities. Well this is pretty original.

That is a good point, this would be original!

. . . what other city has a clothes line running down it’s front lawn?

That’s the point, your condemnation includes the phrase “what other city”. What vulgarity would compel somebody to put a FERRIS WHEEL next to the most famous parliament building in the world, ruining the panorama? Might as well just stick a giant red nose on big ben. What insanity caused somebody to plonk a BIG SPIKE right in the centre of the main street in Dublin? Doesn’t it just look like a syringe? What UTTER MADNESS caused somebody to put, of all things, a GLASS PYRAMID in the middle of one of the most historic buildings in Paris? Why not put a glass sphynx on top of the Arc de Triomphe while they’re at it! And how uncivilised must have been all those who ruined the historic low rise streetscape of New York by plonking monstrosities like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building right in the middle of them? BARBARIANS!!!!!!!!

@rumpelstiltskin wrote:

That’s the point, your condemnation includes the phrase “what other city”. What vulgarity would compel somebody to put a FERRIS WHEEL next to the most famous parliament building in the world, ruining the panorama? Might as well just stick a giant red nose on big ben. What insanity caused somebody to plonk a BIG SPIKE right in the centre of the main street in Dublin? Doesn’t it just look like a syringe? What UTTER MADNESS caused somebody to put, of all things, a GLASS PYRAMID in the middle of one of the most historic buildings in Paris? Why not put a glass sphynx on top of the Arc de Triomphe while they’re at it! And how uncivilised must have been all those who ruined the historic low rise streetscape of New York by plonking monstrosities like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building right in the middle of them? BARBARIANS!!!!!!!!

you need to cut down on those ‘rage’ pills you’re taking rumpelstiltskin.

they’re not doing you any good at all.

@gunter wrote:

That is a good point, this would be original!

. . . what other city has a clothes line running down it’s front lawn?

Barcelona has one across it’s port and up to the Olympic stadium? i know it’s not quite the same but y’know

rumpelstilstkin does have a point in fairness. I abhorred this when i first heard about it. now i won’t be too quick to condemn it until i see the full impact on renders etc. Although if i recall correctly the pylons required to support this were brutal and it was their impact on the footpaths in their vicinity that really got me annoyed – although if they pedestrianised the quays around them it might be ok. The clothes line didn’t really bother me from what i remember. Anyone got any pld pics?

gimme a minute

k from good ol’ archiseek

call it aging, call it time, or call it the recession, but i dunno. The initial lunacy I tarred this project with has morphed into a more considered why not? But God those pylons are truly truly horrific. If they can’t do anything about that then it just has to be trashed…

@rumpelstiltskin wrote:

That’s the point, your condemnation includes the phrase “what other city”. What vulgarity would compel somebody to put a FERRIS WHEEL next to the most famous parliament building in the world, ruining the panorama? Might as well just stick a giant red nose on big ben. What insanity caused somebody to plonk a BIG SPIKE right in the centre of the main street in Dublin? Doesn’t it just look like a syringe? What UTTER MADNESS caused somebody to put, of all things, a GLASS PYRAMID in the middle of one of the most historic buildings in Paris? Why not put a glass sphynx on top of the Arc de Triomphe while they’re at it! And how uncivilised must have been all those who ruined the historic low rise streetscape of New York by plonking monstrosities like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building right in the middle of them? BARBARIANS!!!!!!!!

My analogy might have been dubious, but yours are off the wall completely:)

You made a good point about the originality of the cable-car idea.

I do agree with you on that point. It would be better to have an original attraction, even if a bit flawed, rather that go for pale copy of someone else’s attraction.

Unfortunately, the visual impact of the giant, ungainly, supports looks (to me anyway) to be too big of a price to pay. I don’t think Dublin needs a new attraction that badly.

Maybe if the supports were sculpted up a bit, or set behind the North Quays, it would have less negative impact of the primary Liffey vistas.

If you check back, you’ll see that I’ve actually never said a bad word about this proposal, and that ‘clothes line’ jibe could have been interpreted either way;)

@gunter wrote:

Maybe if the supports were sculpted up a bit, or set behind the North Quays, it would have less negative impact of the primary Liffey vistas.

Eh you can keep such tawdry shite on the southside, thank you very much 🙂

My primary reservation about this is that should it look awful, it would be private hands and impossible to remove and therefore remain a permanent blight on Dublin’s central binding element, the quays.

Why not simply fix existing attractions, such as the Smithfield tower, now closed for two years? Or the fountain in South King Street? Or wash clean the Liffey’s fine cut granite stone walls and police and maintain the bridges such as Macken St and the boardwalk – this last one’s a really radical thought, and therefore unlikely to happen :rolleyes:

Ah lads, you’re letting the side down here. Not the side of architecture, design or good planning, but sanity! I knew the “it’ll generate X amount of jobs” line would take down some men on Archiseek eventually. It happens to the best of us. But for those of us surviving, please, keep focused! Some day it’ll all be over – keep looking forward to that glorious day.

theres a dramatisation of eiffels towers being made on Discovery you can acquire, awful dialogue but interesting to watch

@lostexpectation wrote:

theres dramatisation of eiffels towers being made on Discovery you can acquire, awful dialogue but interesting to swatch

true

@hutton wrote:

…..Smithfield tower, now closed for two years….

Why ?

Why indeed. Could it be that Dublin’s skyline is just not interesting enough to attract the volumes needed to maintain the attraction….ugly cable car take note.

Kinda mad………..but at least it’s sorta original……….well at least it’s not another big London wheel.

There was a recent proposal – which got some coverage on the front page of this site – for a multi-level garden within and around the building which was to have been the new headquarters of Anglo-Irish Bank. This proposal included a possible cable car between the multi-level garden and some location on the South quays.

I have a few questions related to this recent proposal.

Firstly, would this new cable car idea be properly integrated with the original Liffey cable car system discussed earlier on this thread? That is, would one be able to change rapidly from one cable car to the other, or would a long walk be necessary.

Secondly, it seems to my untrained eye that this second cable car might well have a negative impact on views of the proposed Giant Man to be placed near City Quay in the river Liffey. Does anyone agree?

I’d also have concerns that it may have a negative impact on the plan for a floating island of buildings in the Liffey.

could the cable cars be integrated with a big wheel?

The only logical location for a cable car interchange is College Green.

Have to disagree with you there, jim.

In a nice area like College Green, all those pylons, ‘n wires, ‘n stuff.

That’d be, like, omigod, visibility overload.

Yes, and you’ll have seen, jim, that An Bord Pleanala rejected the Mater Hospital proposal, basically on the grounds of visibility overload.

Your idea is, unfortunately, not a terribly good one.

perhaps a cable car to connect the two luases?