kefu

Flancare Park and Turners X do not blow anything out of the water.
And I can say without fear of contradiction that Croke Park, Nowlan Park, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Semple Stadium, Pairc Tailteann, Pairc Ui Conchuir, Limerick Gaelic Grounds, Fitzgerald Stadium, Cusack Park, Pearse Stadium, Hyde Park and St Tiernach’s Park all have better capacity than any Leage of Ireland ground.

I was talking to the City Council about the proposal to sell advertising on hoardings around the monuments, and apparently it’s not going ahead. It was a proposal made from the advertising industry but Dublin City Council “declined”, presumably on the basis that it would be considered hypocritical.
They will instead be putting in place information panels. So yet more kudos for Dublin City Council.
Except I can’t help feeling that the money raised from advertising would have gone a long way to pay for the statue cleaning project. And as it would have been only temporary, and on unsightly hoardings that are going to be there anyway – maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.

Dear Madam,
Another great scoop for the Irish Times. This story only appeared in the Irish Independent eight days ago. Is this a record?

Irish Times, April 14: O’Connell Street statues to be cleaned in €300,000 programme by Paul Cullen
The historic statues on Dublin’s O’Connell Street are to be cleaned up in a four-month conservation programme which started this week.
As part of the programme, which will cost €300,000, the bronze statues will be coated in a thin layer of wax to provide protection against pollution.
The programme is the latest phase of the refurbishment of the capital’s main thoroughfare; further works to improve the appearance of the top of O’Connell Street are due to start later in the year.
Cleaning and refurbishment of the O’Connell and Parnell statues at either end of the street will account for most of the budget, according to Dublin City Council’s heritage officer Donncha Ó Dúlaing.
The four victory angels and 30 figures on the O’Connell statue will have to be cleaned delicately using bristle brushes.
“The bronze is very black, though generally in good nick, but it has no protection against pollution,” says Mr Ó Dúlaing.
The other statues to be refurbished are those of Jim Larkin, William Smith O’Brien, Father Matthew and Sir John Grey. Two nearby figures are also included in the programme – James Joyce in North Earl Street and the Sheahan memorial on Burgh Quay, which commemorates an RIC man who was overcome by fumes trying to rescue a worker in the sewers.
Information panels on each statue will be mounted on the surrounding hoardings, according to Mr Ó Dúlaing.
A number of the statues have incurred damage over the years, but there are no plans to repair these defects. They include bullet holes in the O’Connell statue which date back to the 1916 Rising and damage to an angel from a loyalist bomb in the 1960s. Father Matthew has been missing a finger since Nelson’s Pillar but he too will have to soldier on without it.
“The defects are part of the history of our nation, and we won’t be touching them,” says Mr Ó Dúlaing.

And the original from that little read newspaper, the Irish Independent.

Irish Independent April 6, 2005
HEADLINE: CITY’S LANDMARK STATUES TO GET Euro 300,000 FACELIFT

THE famous landmark statues along Dublin’s O’Connell Street are to get a Euro 300,000 makeover starting next Monday which aims to restore them to their former glory.
The city authorities have decided to leave the many bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising in the statue of Daniel O’Connell, which are part of the capital’s history.
And they have also decided not to replace the missing fingers on the statue of Fr Matthew. They were blown off when the nearby Nelson’s Pillar was destroyed in a bomb blast.
Some of the seven statues and monuments are badly damaged from air pollution or have become defaced by decades of bird droppings.
From Monday, scaffolding and hoarding will be erected around the monuments to allow work to get underway.
Experts in bronze from the UK and stonemasons from Ireland will spend months working on the statues, which have become grimy from air pollution, bird dropping, and decay.
Donncha O Dulaing, Dublin City Council heritage officer, said the clean-up operation was long overdue and the monuments would get the specialist cleaning they deserved.
“We decided to leave the bullet holes in Daniel O’Connell as they are part of our heritage,” he told the Irish Independent yesterday.
Mr O Dulaing said that close inspection of some of the monuments revealed the bronze was now very black and dirty looking.
“We are not cleaning them just for the sake of cleaning them. Some are in need of urgent cleaning. It will be done to best possible conservation standards,” said Mr O Dulaing.
The heritage officer said the work, which starts on Monday next, would take about four months at a cost of Euro 300,000.
The project is being undertaken as part of the ongoing regeneration of O’Connell Street, which has seen the introduction of wider pavements, new road surfaces, and many attractive new trees along the country’s main street.
Naming the people in whose memory the monuments were built, and the year they were built, figures frequently in quiz questions.
They are Charles Stewart Parnell (erected 1911); Fr Matthew of the temperance movement (1890); James Joyce (1990); Jim Larkin (1979); Sir John Gray, an MP and instigator of Dublin’s water scheme (1879); revolutionary William Smith O’Brien (1870); and Daniel O’Connell (1882).
An eighth monument on nearby Burgh Quay to RIC constable Patrick Sheahan, who died rescuing a worker from a gas leak in 1905, is also to be restored. It was erected in 1906.
Treacy HoganEnvironment Correspondent

If that’s what they are, they’re very unsightly. I’d say the architects were raging when they were told they’d be a prerequisite. I can’t even imagine what the finished product is going to look like now.

In the artist’s impression, you can see the joint in the middle, which is where the bridge pivot opens.
Is it possible, the black structure is a temporary thing to hold the bridge in position, while it’s fixed to the supports.

Extract from an article in Irish Times in August ’03:

“The bridge, which will be located some 300 metres downriver from the Matt Talbot Bridge, will be suspension in design and capable of swivelling around two “cradles” to create a 46-metre opening for ships travelling upriver. It will span the Liffey from the Mariners’ memorial at City Quay to Stack A, a 19th-century warehouse on the Custom House Docks site, which is to be developed as a retail and trade exhibition centre.”

Cafe Bar Deli is the next best thing to Bewley’s going back in.
It’s one of the only places in Dublin where two people can quickly go and get something to eat and come out with change from €30. Both George’s Street and Ranelagh are always packed as a result.
What about Westmoreland St, Diaspora. Any word on that.

Do ye think this is a new structure or work on the existing one?

Westland Row will be closed at the times and dates stated below this weekend. Westland Row from its junction with Pearse Street to the south of Railway Viaduct, on Sunday 3rd April 2005 between the hours of 6.00am and 2.00pm. Northbound traffic will be diverted via Merrion Square West, Merrion Street, Hume Street, St. Stephen’s Green, Cuffe Street, Kevin Street, Bride Street , Bride Road, Nicholas Street and Winetavern Street to the North Quays. Southbound traffic will be diverted via Pearse Street and the city centre. Local vehicular access and full pedestrian access will be maintained at all times. The Closure is to facilitate works on a pedestrian footbridge over Westland Row.

Paul, What is the alignment of that National Cathedral plan.
I can’t make out where Henrietta Street or the King’s Inns are.

Abbeyleix, Co Laois is an exceptionally beautiful town.
Adare, Co Limerick is often considered Ireland’s prettiest in the guide books.

I agree with GregF. That area is dog rough, to the extent that tourists are warned to be careful with belongings on their way up to the Wax Museum.
And Phil, it’s also important that when people are given state-subsidised accomodation within walking distance of the city centre, they should show some appreciation of that fact and perhaps take some pride in those lodgings – and not allow them fall into chronic disrepair.