GrahamH

I’ve always been amazed at how a Heritage/National Trust never developed in this country.
Why?
Has An Taisce always been deemed as fulfilling the role by Goverment and conservation bodies?

The ‘advisory’ role of An Taisce to Government is a most bizarre and half-hearted legislative set-up.

Its something they continuosly bring up when there are objections and planning disputes etc – the fact that they must raise these issues in their statutory role.

The out of town developments hav’nt damaged Dublin city centre but they have dramatically affected it.
In the late 80s, my parents could’nt get out of Arnotts onto Henry St during the Christmas period, the street was so full of people that nobody could move – literally – there were pockets of air on the st where some could move a few feet, and Gardai were on-site directing pedestrians.

Never would this happen today, and thats even with the population explosion around the city.
In Dublin’s case – the lifting of the ban will only serve to aid the establishment of sprawling car dependant machines of stores that will encourage further housing, even more clogged M50 lanes, even more pollution – overall – even more fringe development.
Keeping stores small makes such major schemes uneconomical out in the wilds.

I remember on Pat Kenny’s prog about a year ago – a contributer from the UK who had researched such large stores in comparison with smaller out-of-towns there and in the US, said that in nearly every case where the large ones developed they had drained the city centres damaging trade.

Someone asked earlier is it possible to legislate for specific stores such as IKEA – it is.
A stipulation of for example ‘flat-packed domestic furnishing suppliers’ can be made, hence only such stores can exceed the cap.

‘The building is listed so the works will be primarily internal’
Brilliant!
That’s a quote for the record books!
Did you ever hear anything like it?!

I can easily see the slatted ceiling inside the concourse being the first feature to be ripped out, this application must be got hold of straight away.
I’ll keep gaurd if you like, I come out of Connolly every morning and pass by.
I’ll stick my head in every day when/if the works get underway!

The ban should stay in place – there is more than enough ‘shopping experiences’ outside of Dublin city, and indeed around the country adding to congestion outside towns and car dependancy, also creating environmental problems.
And the best public transport in the world to these places is pointless, as people require cars to load up their purchases.
A plethora of such stores leads to the draining of resources from city & town centres.
It would appear that IKEA are the only ones that need the large retail space – under no circumstances should legislation be passed to satisfy a single private interest.

Then again if IKEA agreed to a smaller premises, they’d still have hoards of cars going to it anyway…
But what Tesco propose – large out of town ‘experiences’ – under no circumstances should these be allowed in, there are more than enough brownfield sites in towns across the country to accomodate moderate stores.
Large developments out of town also leads to developers scrambling over each other to build more sprawling housing close to them.

1st September 2003

Thought I’d awaken this thread wondering if anyone saw the woeful state of Liberty Hall on the 9 0’Clock News last night.
A reinactment of Larkin’s speech to the masses was played out yesterday outside the building, and the setting for the speech was a shambles of a building.
In one close-up shot of the actor playing him, behind loomed a shattered mirror glass window on the first or second floor, covered over with a sheet of hardboard (and its been like this for months because I pass it regularly)
Other shots included dirty, peeling, over-painted mosaic cladding and dirty grilles of air-conditioning units.

I know everyone on this site is well aware of the terrible state of Dublin’s landmark tall building and have complained at length about it before, but the news last night really brought it home, not least home to 500,000 viewers around the country as well.

SIPTU should be ashamed of themselves, being in posession of not only a prominent structure but a building that is an icon of the city.

I too like the monkeys playing billards on the Kildare St Club, although they are in a surprisingly poor condition.

Each of the heads of the Custom House represent various rivers in Ireland – I think thats the most facinating aspect of such quirky features – there’s a story behind everything.

The seahorses adorning the lamposts on Grattan Bridge are of note, as are the two lanterns on the centre island of College Green – although two more which originally formed a square of four around Grattan’s statue have unfortunately disappeared.

My last few years in DIT have been marred with many a quip and sneering remark over Grangegorman – be prepared Stephen!
Even the lecturers are at it – knowing full well they’ll be retired by the time it’s finished (or started)

Ah yes, there she is in all her glory.

Perhaps the statues Paul speaks of also came from the Four Courts – there were originally 8 statues lining the walls of the central rotunda, representing Mercy and Law amongst others, but these were also removed, perhaps their representations were deemed rather appropriate for the Kings Inns and hence were placed in the grounds.

Henrietta’s lamp was connected in the Four Courts to a gas supply, the earliest reference to her is from 1840.

The Famine Memorial is very poignant and wonderfully ‘accessible’ and of a human scale.

Burke and Goldsmith’ statues outside Trinity’s West Front I think are the finest classical statues in the city.

And Parnell of course – although I always thought that the acres of gold text, although facinating in content, is a bit naff asthetically.

THe female figure that remains, didn’t she use to to be standing in the central rotunda of the Four Courts?
Its Hibernia is’nt it…