O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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So here is todays puzzle – What do you do when you are on O’Connell Street (at the junction with Abbey Street to be exact) and you need to find out where the new Comfort Inn on Granby Row is? Anyone?
Its obvious! You just look for the brown finger sign helpfully located on one of the median lamposts beside Mr Smith (or is it Mr Grey cant remember) . I noticed this last night…couldn’t take a photo unfortunately.
It would seem that that either:
a) old habits die hard (ie, randomly putting up rubbish signs and street clutter)
b) new habits die faster (ie, spending loadzamoney doing up a street with the stated aim of eremoving excess street clutrter and random signage), or
c) no one really gives a shit@StephenC wrote:
Guess whats making a comeback according to The Evening Herald last night…..? The sacred heart statue formerly at the old taxi rank will be reinstalled over the next two weeks. According to the report it will get a new housing with solar panels and LED lighting at night.
I am glad to hear this is making a come back.
Hmmm – what will it look like in its refurbished state I wonder, especially in its newly exposed environment? Kitch is one thng, but day-glo green concrete pedestals are quite another! Presumably it’s been defly sanatised, chromafied and electrified for the generic generation.
How long exactly has this been on the street? Certainly since the late 1970s when this picture was taken.
And more recently, encased in ravishing PVC (as posted before).
Indeed has anyone ever noticed the ultimate shrine to Catholicisim that is the diminutive little shop premises – if it’s even that – just across the road from the statue beside the Savoy? It has such a tiny frontage that it appears to have passed under the radar of the latter half of the twentieth century. It’s window display is one of the most ‘innovative’ in the city…
I’d like to be a fly on the wall when Planning Enforcement come knocking with their clipboards :p.It’s quite likely it was from this premises that the statue was salvaged during the Civil War, rather than the nearby Gresham as is often said – assuming it was around at the time.
Sounds like the hotel just popped the sign up of their own accord, Stephen – a case for the above office methinks.
Quote Stephen C
“So here is todays puzzle – What do you do when you are on O’Connell Street (at the junction with Abbey Street to be exact) and you need to find out where the new Comfort Inn on Granby Row is? Anyone? [End]
And when the unfortunates eventually get to the NEW IMPROVED Dublin City Comfort Inn you find the venue has NO safe parking or unloading space in front of its doors.
The Car/Taxi/Bus/Coach/Ecocab simply has to hike up in the outer lane of three along Granby Row and directly AT a major Right Hand Turn to boot.Does this constitute a Road Safety Hazard ?
Is this a Public Safety Issue ?I consider it hits the Bullseye on Both criteria.
HOWEVER The Dublin City Manager and his band of merry professional men in the Planning Section have a somewhat more relaxed perspective on all this oul safety stuff…
In short …keep her goin lads until somebody is killed or injured then we`ll blame some Driver or other for not keepin an eye out……..:oProfessional Planners…..where`s the P45`s kept….. 😡
Alex, that would be a road safety engineering matter, not a planning one. If the DCC engineer failed to comment on the access arrnagements when consulted, a planner is unlikely to in his/her decision. Should have been spotted by someone though, from either profession. Also it’s not entirely beyond the realms of fantasy that the architect could have seen it?
@GrahamH wrote:
How long exactly has this been on the street? Certainly since the late 1970s when this picture was taken.
And more recently, encased in ravishing PVC (as posted before).
Aha! FTW It is clear that this second Christ is an imposter – examine closely and all will be revealed. For Christ’s sake, if there is to be a resurrection of this ediface, then I say re-instate “Christ of the Broken Finger”…
*awaiting second coming*
:p 😀
Well the plinth has arrived. It’s located to the northern end of the taxi rank, at the junction with Cathal Brugha Street.
Built of polished granite.
Only screwholes on the surface: the absence of electrical provision suggesting this will indeed be an eco ecclesiastical erection, with solar panels atop.
Also the new Granby sign.
Looks like they just wandered about the city popping them up at will. And although a number of cases are under investigation, it has to be said the street is still awash with recent unauthorised banners, advertisments and shopfront concoctions.
@GrahamH wrote:
Well the plinth has arrived. It’s located to the northern end of the taxi rank, at the junction with Cathal Brugha Street.
I’m sure it’ll improve when the work is done but right now it’s almost completely impossible to walk past 🙁
It would ne hard to find an example of a well meaning project which turned out to be a totally compromised flop.
Let`s face it O Connell St is currently an awful mess with little structure,form or grace about it…and even fewer prople who accept responsibility for it ..??? :confused:The DCC elegance of the pole in situ says it all.
By the way, I’m planning to interview the Taxi drivers at that rank with my camera so watch this space. I’ve spoken to many drivers about it and the majority are neutral about it. A good majority believed it was gone for good.
@Devin wrote:
Possibly since the Marian Year, 1954.
There was a plaque on it before it was removed saying that it had been renovated in 2002 after storm damage. I think this might have been when the case was changed to PVC. Not sure when it was erected though.
@GrahamH wrote:
Also the new Granby sign.
Looks like they just wandered about the city popping them up at will. And although a number of cases are under investigation, it has to be said the street is still awash with recent unauthorised banners, advertisments and shopfront concoctions.
Perusing the always informative Irish Statute Book site today, I stumbled across this:
@Roads Act, 1993, Section 71 (1) (a) wrote:
Any person who, without lawful authority or the consent of a road authority—
(i) erects, places or retains a sign on a public road, or
(ii) erects, places or retains on a public road any caravan, vehicle or other structure or thing (whether on wheels or not) used for the purposes of advertising, the sale of goods, the provision of services or other similar purpose,
shall be guilty of an offence.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1993/en/act/pub/0014/sec0071.html
This is obviously in addition to the other provisions that would apply to this case- Development Plan policies and objectives, etc.
The pole next door is being used for a 30km speed limit sign, so you can see why Comfort Inn think its a free for all.
Well all is finished.
The latest addition to the monumental core of the street.
A nice crisp case.
With elegantly profiled base.
Though ironically for a solar-powered monument, it’s suffering disastrous greenhouse effects. Was ventilation not considered?!
Hence apologies for the quality of the interior pics – not that anything could really make them much worse…
Were the winners of the egg-painting competition in the local primary commissioned to decorate it? You gotta love Catholic iconography in this country: display cases and mounts are usually of better quality than the sculpture itself.
Note the four LEDs on the ceiling of the case: the solar panel is on the roof above. There’s no lighting in the floor. To be slightly cynical, one would have to wonder if the solar-powering is more to do with a DCC lack of foresight in making electrical provision on the median – as with the Christmas lights on the Plaza – that an effort to be environmentally friendly…
We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.@GrahamH wrote:
Though ironically for a solar-powered monument, it’s suffering disastrous greenhouse effects. Was ventilation not considered?! 😮
Maybe he is the breathing statue?
Thanks for photos Graham.
Jesus……….that objest looks like something you’d purchase in that high quality store (Hector Grey):eek:
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