kefu

The insurance issue is only an issue because the skaters themselves are suing after they fall.
So before we immediately blame the insurance industry, if the skaters signed a waiver (of if indeed waivers had any legal standing) – that wouldn’t necessarily be an issue.
After all, if you’re involved in any physical activity, particularly one like skateboarding where you will fall and regularly, you can’t say you didn’t know the dangers.

Here’s Kevin Myers utterly moronic contribution to the debate. From the man who called the Carrickmines campaign “a diseased exercise in ancestor-worship”. Preserve our heritage … but only the bits Mr Myers like.

The Dún Laoghaire seafront is one of the best-loved features of the entire island of Ireland, and for many reasons, says Kevin Myers
Its setting has been carved by nature, with the Wicklow hills behind it, before it St George’s Channel, and beyond that, and visible on good days, the mountains of Wales, cousins to the Wicklow hills to which they were once joined.
But it was the hand of 19th century man which really made Dún Laoghaire what it is, with the railway line from the centre of Dublin, and the creation of the port by the great Scots engineer John Rennie: and perhaps it is in his honour that the adjoining Scotsman’s Bay is so named. With the arrival of the ferries and the rail connection with Dublin, an elegant Regency and Victorian waterfront was built, with a brace of mile-long piers stretching out into the bay.
Two churches were built to grace the town’s skyline, and from one of them the Angelus bell used to sound each evening to welcome returning ship-borne emigrants and visitors. The ferries no longer arrive shortly after six as once they did, and only those who have slid across the bay in the evening light and heard the bells tolling across the shimmering waters can know the bewitching melancholy they aroused in the hearts of those coming home to Ireland upon the brimming tide.
Dún Laoghaire is one of the most beautiful places in Ireland. It is beautiful to see from the sea and beautiful to see from the shore, and at times it can rival the Bay of Naples or Capri in its enchantment. So it is quite simply past all belief that Dún Laoghaire Council plans to dump a 5.5 acre apartment complex on land which for the most part – some four acres – is to be claimed from the sea in Scotsman’s Bay. And in contrast to the modest, two and three storey roofline which characterises most of the waterfront, the complex will, with a glass tower, reach 10 storeys high.
Moreover, it will not be set back from the sea, but will be an intrusion into it: where there are now waters, there will be an apartment block rising like Croke Park, adjoining the spit of land where the derelict baths now are. Indeed, it has been a desire to make something of the old baths which became the starting point for the entire wretched project.
But if it was simply a desire to put the baths to some fresh and profitable use, why not open a shopping mall, or a heliport, or an office block, or put the Bertie Bowl there? Why not place the national incinerator in Scotsman’s Bay, or perhaps our first nuclear power station? If a disregard for the waterfront is to be a defining feature of any development of the old baths, why halt at half measures? Why not let Michael O’Leary build his own transatlantic air terminal there? On the other hand, there could of course be some modest, low-cost development of the baths: they could be turned into a maritime park, which would be appropriate to the scale and the nature of the town. For Dún Laoghaire is primarily a residential suburb, which has no separate existence independent of the metropolis. It is not an industrial city like Bilbao, which was visited by a delegation of Dún Laoghaire councillors, and which apparently has become the inspiration for the Scotsman’s Bay project.
This is rather like councillors from Belmullet visiting Venice for a few tips on how to build a Lido, or representatives from Birr travelling to Florence to plan the future of their town. But we do not live in such a world. Apples are not the role models for turnips: oranges do not aspire to be teapots; Dún Laoghaire wastes its time, and squanders its seafront jewels, attempting to emulate Bilbao.
To be sure, turning the old baths into a park will not net the council as much money as the 180 view-blocking apartments, which will probably sell for about €1 million each. But then, keeping the Book of Kells does not earn Trinity College Dublin as much money as it would get from selling it: we could dispatch the President to Blanchardstown and sell the Áras to a Texan, thereby turning a tidy penny. Moreover, Merrion Square is a terrible waste of precious city-centre space: why not knock down those unproductive Georgian buildings, and give planning permission for 40-storey offices and flats complexes, alongside the even taller Leinster Towers, where the old Dáil used to sit in that ghastly old Leinster House?
There is a bespoke and accusatory sneer for those who want to protect what already exists, and who wish that developers would leave well enough alone. It is that they are reactionaries who are opposed to change. So be it. For was the founder of architectural conservationism, John Betjeman, not so abused when he campaigned to save the famous St Pancras Arch? Were not the opponents of the Dublin Corporation scheme to turn the Grand and Royal Canals into motorways similarly traduced? Are defenders of the modest and the quaint against the garish and the new not invariably so ridiculed? The truth is that Dún Laoghaire is not some exotic Iberian city set on a Mediterranean shore, but a largely British seafront town set on the Irish Sea. If the Dún Laoghaire flats-complex project goes ahead, and Scotsman’s Bay becomes Scotsman’s Plaza, then the curse of both John Rennie, and of future generations, will pursue the perpetrators down the years to come.

Graham,
I’ve never thought of the Matt Talbot as great – was that meant as ironic or do you think it has redeeming features?
It’s certainly not as offensive as the usually concrete bridges of that era you find in many English cities. And it has a nice curve and sweep to it, but little else.
A photo of it just in case anyone forgets:
http://www.fantasyjackpalance.com/fjp/photos/city/c002/liberty-hall-066.jpg

There’s a pic of the Bread Company building in this thread
https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=3156&highlight=dublin+bread+company

I suppose the most logical way would be to have the end of the sections cut as below and swinging naturally together:
_ ___ ___
/ /__/ /__/ /

I think that would work. Didn’t look close enough to see what they had actually done.
Would seem a bit long-winded to have to reattach a number of sections every time you opened the bridge.
Although, the necessity for opening it is so infrequent that this may well be the case.

Couldn’t agree more with the earlier points made about Galway? In ten year’s time – it will be a model for how not to develop a city.
We all know Dublin is bad for planning but Galway is making the very same mistakes and magnifying them five-fold.
The new ring road is being built with out-of-town shopping centres as its first priority rather than funnelling traffic away from the city centre.
‘Galway is Ireland’s … largest sprawling retail warehousing park’ – a perfect description.

Can anyone explain why some of Graham’s pictures won’t load up?
I’m on a super-fast connection on work so it’s not a band-width issue.
When I’m at home on broadband, they come up no problem.
Is there something I need to change in settings?

Most of the good will towards athletics in Ireland has died off because of doping and the lack of serious Irish competitors.
It’s a disgrace the way track and field facilities (for example Belfield) have been let go to rack and ruin.
But there just isn’t any good reason to put in place a track at Lansdowne Road.
Neither the FAI or IRFU would agree to it … and the chances of a big Euro/World athletics event getting a full house here is non-existent. Santry is more than adequate for the national championships at the moment.
A lot of the National Stadiums were built with athletics tracks because they were built for the purposes of holding the Olympics, ie Rome, Barca, Berlin.
Stade de France was built that way with a Parisian Olympic bid in mind. A similar situation has arisen in London with Wembley and their Olympic bid. But the extra cost is enormous.
Only Gay Mitchell thinks the Olympics will ever come to Dublin.

Well done Graham.
Contacting Dublin City Council is the way to get things done.
They are a very proactive organisation when they get a nudge.

Here’s another very good picture of it
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/etext/irish/pictures/p235.html