GrahamH
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Well Eden Quay is massively congested with all those bus stops, and all those weirdos staring at you as you walk by.
If the existing quay is refurbished as part of the plan, (it being the worst in the city) I’m happy. Although the wooden hand rail on the existing boardwalk needs constant attention and maintainance, perhaps it should be changed for this section.
And trying to get across O’ Cll Bridge in that straight direction is a nightmare.
I was going to mention the lovely Pamela, only I thought most people would’nt know who she was, and yes, she was the only saving grace for Ireland.
I don’t agree the backdrop is insignificant, I think most people look to it for a reference to the country featuring, and virtually every participating country go to great lengths to carefully select, compose and frame their backgrounds to promote a good image, even bloody Russia gets in on the act!
Indeed the fact that some here did’nt even notice the backdrop is evidence of how pathetic it was, you’d certainly notice, not to mention remember a spectacular floodlit scene such as the Spire or even the Four Courts, lit in white and seen from that classic raking angle with the trees lining Inns Quay.
The only reason I watch Eurovision is to see how countries convey themselves to the rest of Europe, not least the host country, and yes Latvia did a terrible job in promoting themselves, esp in contrast with ourselves or Estonia last year, or Sweden etc.
The song is important of course, but the Eurovision has long been used as a vehicle for home-promotion and we should have utilised what little time we had to it’s greatest extent.
The Spire has been completed for months, we can see the finished artical now and can judge it perfectly objectively.
And I still, and always will, deem the base to be ghastly. Never will I tip-toe to the ‘other side’.
Unfortunate for me, different for others of course.I remember thinking one part was excellent, and one part awful, only I can’t remember what either of them are!
Although I do recall the repointing on on the building Greg mentions & it looks really well.The Holy Trinity looks fantastic, and would appear to be the only decent floodlighting job in the country going by the picture.
Favourite classical:
Bank of Ireland, College Green, its irreplacable. Solid, restrained, streamlined, beautifully balanced & proportioned.Favourite ‘modern’:
The way the Carrolls Building in Dundalk spreads out idilically on the rolling landscape is fantastic, again restrained and well balanced, its clean lines contrasting with the (artificial) hills and the many architectural trees & plants.
I saw it on a winters morning with the landscape shrouded in mist, and wrapping around the building, it was spectacular.
I was raging I did’nt have my camera!
(Suffice to say, my favourite building)You’re joking, pieces falling off?!
If we were still in the 70s and it was a Georgian building, it would be declared unsafe and swept away within days.
And pieces of that red cladding have the potential to fall off the building and all thats done is a grid put up?The Boyne Valley Suspension Bridge on the proposed Drogheda By-pass is another cabled structure. Its already completed, with the road due to link up to the N1 by the end of the year.
The bridge looks spectacular crossing the valley, when seen from the train viaduct further down the river.On a kind of semi-relatedish issue of sorts, ok its not at all, does anyone have the faintest idea what that grid cable-like supported structure is thats tacked onto the House of Ireland on Nassau St?
I originally thought that it was part of scaffolding that was being erected, and then part of some type of projecting shelter that was being built.The fact that its been up for the past year now is suggestive that its owners are trying to make some sort of architectural statement, ie, its now apparently part of the building.
Why?
Annnnnyway, I think any of Peter Pearson’s books on Dublin would mention the house, I think ‘Decorative Dublin’ does.
Is’nt that some vast Victorian granite pile on the southside of the Park?
The houses around that green are to die for, big rambling 19th century properties, acres of red brick, swathed in heavy granite dressings, miles of cast iron, plate glass sashes, shady gardens, monkeypuzzle trees…..
Ahhhh…..
Admittedly, it seems more than a little steep to me too but it was definitly the figure I read, and I remember being amazed at the time, so much so that I told someone else and they were equally bowled over.
Unless the paper quoted the overall pricetag for the Green’s paving as the price for the trees, which seems the most likely explanation.Indeed this culture really should be adressed prior to any development on the st, imagine the state of the new paving, steel street furniture & new shopfronts etc after a multitude of Friday & Saturday nights. Although how you deal with it…
During the day however, it is essential that a permenant strong Garda presence is maintained on the st, a friend had her phone nicked straight out of her hand only the other day.
And 2 permenant litter wardens purely for the st are also required.
Cleaniness and safety breeds quality stores, which breed money, which breeds quality architecture, which breeds proper maintanence, which breeds ‘quality people’ on the st (in the broadest sense of the term) who in turn breed cleaniness & safety and the circle begins again.But its the powers that be that need to begin drawing this circle, and NOTHING is being done.
The O’ Connell St team told me the paving was to be started in first thing in the new year, and only now are services being laid.
More PVC has crept into the st in the 6 years since the IAP, the pavements were never cleaned after Patricks Day, there are no litter wardens on the st, the Spire still isn’t finished and won’t be for another 5 weeks at least, in the 6 years no facades have been cleaned, bar one, the paving falls into a worse condition by the day, piles of commercial waste are still thrown out onto the roadsides, there has been no developments on the safety aspect to the st, no public urinals that rise out of the ground at night have been installed, the LUAS is delayed by 7 months on the st, public lighting is as apalling as ever, the GPO still not floodlit…………………The IAP was compiled 6 YEARS AGO, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 YEARS. It is an absolute disgrace. Whatever about the Spire’s delays etc, the record on the street’s improvement is abominable.
Yep, the same time Connolly & Pearse were further developed to accomodate the new line.
I can’t think of any ‘very grand’ bridge over any other watercourse dating from this time.
The trees were definitly into the millions, they’re semi-mature, and had to be specially imported from the UK, as this was apparently the only place where ‘city trees’ could be purchased, ie, trees that could withstand the Green’s heavy clay and the traffic pollution.
I think I read it in the Times or Independent at the time.
Other than O’ Connell Bridge, I’m afraid there are no other bridges dating from this time, the closest being Grattan/Capel St Bridge dating from 1875.
All others at the western end of the ‘City Liffey’ date from the 1860s or earlier.
Towards the eastern end, near the city centre, most are 20th century.O’ Connell Bridge seems the most reliable, being ‘very grand’ and dating from 1879-1880.
However, with regard to the carving of the name, to my knowledge, O’ Connell Bridge has absolutely no feature of this sort whatsoever, short of names or ancient graffiti maybe existing on the underside of it’s exceptionally deep arches.The fact that ‘he helped’ build the bridge, and that he was a stone preparer suggests perhaps he was’nt the most high ranking of professionals on site, in which case it is highly unlikely his name would feature – then again graffiti could be a possibility.
I pass over it nearly every day, I’ll take a close look for you if its any help.
The short and unified terrace stretching from Henry St about a 1/4 way down Moore St is very fine, with red brick & limestone dressings & should be preserved.
All of the rest on that side of the st as far as I can recall is utter trash, although there may be a few gems lurking in behind those ghastly plastic signs, and my opinion of the place is probably tainted by these.I’ve often seen that sculpture from the M50, it looks really well, contrasting with the clean lines of surrounding buildings.
Ha!
Isn’t there just something fantastically exiciting about underground spaces, and indeed anything that has been ‘uncovered’, the mystery surrounding them etc – which makes it SO irritating when a logical explanation is applied to them.
Although, then the focus turns onto the old users of the discovery & so it becomes intriuging again…
