The Greens and O Connell Street
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A poem….dedicated to the Green Party
………aka the Bonkers PartyThe Tree
I am a type of tree you know
I start out small and then I grow
My roots spread deep under the ground
To help me so I won’t fall down
My trunk protects me up and down
And carries all my food around
The inside part of me is dead
The outer layers grow instead
From my trunk grow many branches
This is the part of me that dances
On my branches, green leaves you’ll see
They use the sun, to make food for me
Do I sound like a tree you’ve seen?
Have you guessed? I’m an ever-GreenOr
I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.
A tree that looks at God all day
and lifts her leafy arms to pray.
Upon whose bosom snow has lain
who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me
but only God can make a tree.Jesus I’m going mad.
Holy God, Paul, such language!!!
But yes the Greens are a bit OTT alright! It seems that no-one noticed the removal of the trees until it was mentioned on the Marion Finucane show. Over half have been removed since the works began. In any case, the trees destroy the views of many grand buildings on the street. If I had my way, they’d be gone from College Green also – The Parliament House is obscured by those bloody London Plane Trees!!!!
According to one article, Dub City Council got more calls from journalists about the trees than they did from concerned citizens.
Black mark against Ciaran Cuffe in particular. With his background in architecture, you would think that he could, excuse the pun, see the wood for the trees, and realise that these London Planes add absolutely nothing – and take away a lot – from the streetscape.
I think this bullshit about trees somehow being sentient witnesses to the 1916 Rising is particularly sickening. It’s exactly as GregF said, lowest common denominator stuff, which in this county inevitably involves an appeal to republicanism.
Its fairly obvious if you looked at the development plan for O’Connell Street that this was to happen… frigging eejits are only finding this out now…
Sorry aboyut the language but I’m very pissed off about this….. and if i’m around for the next election I will campaign against Cuffe if this gets stopped….
I agree with Seerski, College Green should have them removed as well. I’m going down tonight with a chainsaw, anyone with me 😉
You know what’ll happen next? We’ll have smelly eco warriors up the trees. And they’ll all be from Manchester and London.
London eco-warriors in the London planes
I’m with Paul – if the O’Connell Street redevelopment gets held up by the muesli eaters I’ll take a hacksaw down there myself
Wouldn’t it have been a better idea if DCC had employed a bit of PR and re-launched their master-plan for the street?
Call me cynical but with so many working for them surely they could have counter-attacked on this???
Why not hold a press conference saying how this is all progressing (or not) and what the end result will be and how beneficial it will be for the street!!??
Just an idea!
Cheap politics is no politics!
The Green Party TD’s can be contacted at the email addresses below if anyone wants to voice their disapproval. Maybe send them a link to this site as well so as they can see the objections to their stance.
tsargent@greenparty.ie
johngormley@eircom.net
ccuffe@indigo.ieI see there’s an e-mail chain mail going around now asking people to ring and object to the city council. I’ve recieved a few copies now. Needless to say it contains the same misleading statements. It annoyed me so much I rang the council to register my support for going ahead with the area action plan, and removing the trees to the planed schedule.
Also, see the press release from council: http://www.dublincity.ie/profile/pressr/021106.htm
While that’s very welcome is that it? (the ‘press release’ above)
Surely they could go on the offensive just a lttle bit more??? (no sarcasm intended)
Sent this to the Green party, can I suggest that like minded individuals do the same:
As someone who has voted for John Gormley in the last 2 general elections, I am writing to inform you that after the chaining to trees stunt of yesterday I shall not be voting green again. It was a tacky stunt which is a hinderance to the badly-needed renewal of O’Connell Street. The trees do not add anything of merit to the street architecturally and the replacement trees should be more suitable to the location rather than the grnarled London Plane trees that are currently there. May I suggest that the Green Party support the renewal and part pedestrianising of “Main Street Ireland” which will add more to the quality of life for Dubliners rather than blocking it with a tacky stunt.
I am amazed at the consistency, and lack of it, on this topic. Not one dissenting voice among the lot of you.
When Sir John Rogersons Quay was being redeveloped DCC slapped a preservation order on the ugly chimney and insisted the development be designed around it. Why did they not adopt the same approach when setting out to redevelop O.C.St. and start with the trees and design around them. A formal OTT design is not really fitting for OCSt. Is it beyond the capability of Irish Architects to come up with a design that incorporated the existing trees? By the way Birdwatch Ireland did protest against the cutting down of the trees but what’s the opinion of bird enthusiast v our esteemed architects! Ever ask yourselves why you are always right and the public wrong. Remember ESB’s head office, DCC’s record on Wood Quay. OK they get things right a lot of the time, boardwalk, millennium bridge and others, but this time they are wrong and the trees should have been kept.The O’CLL Street development team are being very ambiguous and inconsistant on this. They keep saying that the existing trees are too big for the street and are obliterating the buildings, and yet they are proposing that equally tall trees (although slenderer) be planted even closer to the buildings at the edge of the footpaths! Smaller clipped lime trees are to be placed down the centre. Still, I do think that the existing trees are far too overwhelming, indeed a good many were only planted in the 60’s and 80’s, what I do not agree with is the breaking up of the street with a central plaza. The overall effect of O’ Cll Street, relies nearly entirely upon it’s fantastic continuity, as does any similar boulevard.
Consistency
You can see among non-architects that the opinion is much the same, people would rather have the street renovated than the trees.Just to add …..I have a great love of nature, I’m a keen gardener and I was initially shocked for a very brief moment when I saw that the mature trees in front of the GPO were removed a couple of years ago, but when I saw in full view the facade and portico of the GPO, I realized what a spectacular street O’Connell Street could be if all it’s architectural merits were revealed and the unkempt jungle removed. As it is at the moment it is like an overgrown garden with incoherent planting of trees and a few anachronistic uncity like superficial rustic flower boxes added annually.
Cities are created by people……They are planned, calculated, measured…..just like great gardens; mannicured, parteurred and topiaried, symbols of civilization, not haphazard piles of shite……If people in Dublin want pure untouched natue go up the road to the Phoenix Park or travel to the countryside just outside Dublin. Or even how about attending to that plot of land at the front and back of their house.
I’ve just heard on the radio that Marianne Finucanne is to broadcast a programme next Tuesday from O’Connel Street regarding the Trees…….If any one is free and who stands up for architectural morality (sounds like an OMD album) would they please go along and contribute so as to counteract Joe (IRA/Sinn Fein, keep all foreign people out of Ireland , they take our jobs/I dunno a weed from a flower aka but the Green Party are always right) Bloggs.
As Louis Armstrong once sang …..
‘I see trees of green…………..here’s a link to the proposed plans and there’s plenty of trees to be seen.
https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1464
Hey Folks,
lighten up a little.
I didn’t think a little tree hugging would upset you that much.
Look, I agree with 90per cent of the O’Connell Street Plan, the Spire, the wider footpaths, the reduction in traffic, the Luas, etc.
However the intention to chop down ALL the trees was hidden in the very small print of the EIS., around about page 150 if my memories not mistaken.
At this stage all I’m asking for is that the few remaining very mature trees North of the Savoy be retained. Personally I feel that they would compliment
the Integrated Area Plan’s landscaping proposals.
OK?
CiaranConsistency.
Start with the trees and design around them?
Can I point out that the street came before the trees, and anyone with eyes in their head can see how much it’s already opened up thanks to the felling – the original vision for the street.
Anyway, there are only a handful left now at the top and bottom of the street and it would look ridiculous if they were retained.
Perhaps the people writing on this site are consistent in their opinions because they are the only ones dealing with fact and common sense instead of the hysteria and misinformation peddled by the bandwagoneers and busybodies.
As others have said, nobody even noticed that most of the trees were already gone, and the inference has to be made that nobody cared.
Images of the proposed redevelopment – minus all old trees- have been in circulation for YEARS without so much as a murmur from the Greens or anyone else.
“Consistency” implies that everybody contributing to this debate here is an architect. Well, I’m not.
By the way, does anyone have Marian Finucane’s e-mail address?
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