kite

@theblimp wrote:

Kite – any chance you could post text of that article since reading of same requires membership

Membership should be free, but here is the text.
I hope the Webmaster won’t mind as it’s a long story in more ways than one.

Sunday Independent April 8th 2007
HUGH Coveney concluded his business chat with publican Denis Quinn – the last man to see him alive – and went for his usual walk with his dogs at Robert’s Cove in Cork.
It was shortly after 11am on Saturday March 14, 1998, six months after the Moriarty tribunal was set up, and just five months after Flood was established. It’s unlikely these matters were on the mind of the 62-year-old former Fine Gael minister as he negotiated the familiar sheer cliff edge he had walked so many times before.
Eight hours later, when her husband had failed to return for a scheduled dinner party with friends, his wife Pauline raised the alarm. Some time later his body was found. His loyal Scottish terrier, Sasha, had remained below the cliff site, where Mr Coveney is believed to have fallen. By torchlight, they had found the dog barking near the base of Robert’s Head.
“She was in a very distressed condition,” it was later reported.
The previous day the gentleman politician had changed his last will and testament – a curiously timed act which, when it was revealed, led to speculation that the politician of a merchant prince family had taken his own life.
If the tribunals were not on his mind, then maybe, it was speculated, his imminent unmasking as the holder of a notorious Ansbacher account might have been. Or was he perhaps still ruminating on his fall from grace just three years earlier?
In 1994 John Bruton, the then Taoiseach, first appointed Coveney to the cabinet as Minister for Defence. A year later hewas politically assassinated by ruthless opportunists, those his former colleague Michael Lowry would now say were “politically motivated”. His demotion to a junior ministry came after allegations of “improper contact” witha businessman.
The suicide rumours had upset his family, but they were reassured when an inquest left little roomfor doubt. The family’s patriarch had died as a result of accidental drowning.
Yet, in Fine Gael, there was then – and still remains – huge resentment that a popular and respected man had, three years earlier, been forced to fall on his sword.
I was at the Bruton family pile in grassy Dunboyne on a balmy Sunday evening when Coveney was obliged to capitulate. Earlier that day it had been reported that, as Defence Minister, he had suggested to the then chairman of Bord Gais that a company of which he was a partner be kept in mind for a State contract.
Owen O’Callaghan, a property developer also of the Cork merchant prince classes – though not quite as blue of blood – was on the board of Bord Gais when the revelation emerged.
Since he was of Fianna Fail stock and a diehard party supporter – financial and otherwise – the finger of suspicion for leaking news of the “improper contact” immediately turned towards him.
He has always denied any part in the skulduggery, but many did not believe his protests -particularly those in Fine Gael, and especially not Michael Lowry, the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications at the time.
Lowry would later take up a cudgel on his own behalf, certainly, but also, many suspected, on behalf of Coveney, his fallen colleague. He went to war with O’Callaghan, his architect friend Ambrose Kelly and Dermot O’Leary, another Fianna Failer who knows his way around the semi-State circuit and around CIE in particular.
O’Leary was the backroom Fianna Fail man who had organised several fundraising events to which O’Callaghan had contributed huge sums of money. One of O’Callaghan’s companies, Riga Ltd, paid more than €150,000 to the party, or its election candidates, in six years to April 2000.
Most of that was paid in 1994, around the time the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, and the then Finance Minister, Bertie Ahern, had met O’Callaghan’s bankers in Los Angeles when he was proposing a €75m football stadium in Neilstown in west Dublin, not far from the notorious Quarryvale site.
With revenge in mind – though he argued that he was trying to protect taxpayers’ money – Lowry attempted to overturn another deal which had seen O’Callaghan secure a prime CIE site at Horgan’s Quay in Cork.
There was talk of cosy cartels and even of surveillance.
In the twilight world where business meets politics and law, many a knife is sharpened.
The media plays its part, hungry dogs occasionally thrown a titbit when it suits the suits who control the country. (For Lowry, they chose Sam Smyth. For Bertie, the Irish Times is the favoured one.)
In the end Lowry was gutted, “politically naive” he now admits]http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/[/url] & http://www.unison.ie/

Following a fierce anti high rise campaign HRS Developments Ltd. have withdrawn plans for their 5 storey apartment block on the site of the former Esso garage in Douglas.
Cllr. Ciaran Lynch welcomed the “victory for residents”, while Cllr. Michael McGrath said the proposed development would have “set a dangerous precedent for further infill development in the greater Douglas area”
:rolleyes: Not in my back yard, eh?

CORK CITY COUNCIL

Re: Huguenot Graveyard, Carey’s Lane
Part 8 (Article 81) Local Government Planning & Development
Regulations 2001

BACKGROUND
The Huguenot Cemetery on Carey’s Lane dates back to the 1700’s – at a period when many Huguenots left France due to religious persecution and settled in various countries including Ireland and in Cork, established a Huguenot Quarter in the Carey’s Lane/French Church Street area.

Off Carey’s Lane there exists a small cemetery measuring no more that 10m X 10m, but of significant historical interest, it being one of only two such cemeteries in Ireland.
This cemetery has for years been neglected, overgrown and invisible to the public because of a continuous 3 metre high wall along its frontage. To the passer-by, it has all the appearance of a derelict site.

In recent months, the City Council purchased the site with a view to restoring the cemetery to a state in keeping with its former use while at the same time, opening it sufficiently to allow the citizens and passer-bys experience a little of the history.

PLANNING
A Scheme for the proposed restoration of the site was prepared by the City Council.
A Notice under Part 8 (Article 81) Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations 2001 was published in the Public Press on 16th February 2007. At the expiry of the Notice on 30th March 2007, submissions were received from:-

Planning Department (City Council)
Huguenots (Dr. Alicia St. Leger)
Building Control (City Council)
Friends of the Huguenot Cemetery Cork
Parks Section, Recreation, Amenity & Culture

THE PROPOSAL
The City Council’s proposal is, to clear the site, deal with any services in the site, insert appropriate paving and pebble stones, restore existing headstones, treat and restore existing internal walls, insert information plaques and in general upgrade what is currently total dereliction, into an appropriate memorial garden to commemorate the historical significance of the site and to awaken an interest in what is by and large and unknown era in the history of Cork.

The proposal involves breaking through the existing wall to allow for a 3 metre wide double gate in wrought iron to allow the public to view the garden, and to allow maintenance access.

SUBMISSIONS
The submission from the Planning Department supports broadly the principle of the proposal, and indeed makes suggestions which are helpful and will be taken on board.

There is however contention about retaining the masonry wall fronting Carey’s Lane and only have the existing small wicker gate as access. This course of action defeats the purpose of the exercise which is to open up this historic section.

This wall is old, has a very significant vertical crack at the northern end, has a very significant horizontal crack at the southern end, stonework which is non-uniform, uneven rendering on parts of it, a rotting timber lintel over the ope, collapsed stone work over the lintel and has modem brick make-up in a disturbed parts of the reveal.
The wall in not plumb.

Furthermore a section of the wall (i.e. 2.4 metres) will be demolished by agreement with adjoining owners on foot of a recent Planning Permission.

This will render the wall unstable in the very narrow Carey’s Lane. In order to overcome this and if a section of the wall has to be taken down and entirely rebuilt, there is a recommendation from the Conservation Officers which will be taken on board.
The submission from the Huguenots (Ms. St. Leger) has a number of recommendations which can be accommodated, many of which are included in the Planning submission.

This submission favours the double gate opening as proposed and does not have an issue with the existing wall.

The submissions from Friends of the Huguenots and the Parks Section support the proposal.

It is proposed to proceed with the development.

JOE GAVIN
CITY MANAGER
5th April, 2007

CORK CITY COUNCIL

Re; Conference Centre

The provision of an indoor Events Centre to cater for large conferences, concerts, exhibitions etc is of strategic importance to the development of business tourism. Such facility should be capable of accommodating conferences with up to 2,000 attending and for concerts have a capacity for approximately 6,000.

The City Council identified a suitable site close to Kent Station for the Events Centre and included its provision as an objective in the North Docklands Local Area Plan. However, neither the owners of the site nor their development partners have indicated any willingness to facilitate the provision of the Events Centre.

It is considered that the Events Centre should be located generally within a range of two kilometers of the centre city to maximize its economic benefit. Sites to meet the criteria can certainly be found in the Docklands and perhaps in other locations. The City Council is aware of at least two parties who are interested in building and managing a Conference/Events Centre on a commercial basis. To date, however, they have failed to secure a suitable site.
In view of the strategic importance of a Conference/Events Centre to the city, I recommend that the City Council offer to take an equity stake of up to 25% in the venture subject to a maximum of € 12m. This would show the importance which the Council attaches to the provision of a Conference Centre and it should be a strong incentive to secure early delivery.
If the City Council approves this recommendation, proposals will be invited publicly for interested parties to make submissions to provide a suitable site, design, build, fund and manage the facility. Interested parties will be required to give the following details:

1. Location of site (within approx. 2 kilometres of city centre)
2. Outline design for Events Centre
3. Whether stand-alone or part of other development
4. Capital cost
5. Time scale for delivery.

The City Council’s approval is sought to proceed along these lines.

J. GAVIN,
CITY MANAGER.
5th April, 2007

On the same subject, Cllr. P. Gosch is to receive a written reply from the Manager next Tuesday as to
…why a conference centre was not built in Mahon,
…if the developer was fined for not providing the facility there,
…when the fine was paid, and the amount of same.

Today’s Cork Independent really sums up the Cork Airport issue;

FLYING HIGH
THERE was something rather pathetic in the response of the Cork Airport Authority to its crippling 100 million euro debt.
Instead of resigning in protest, me what did they do?
They called in a firm of consultants to give them “an overview”. At a cost of more millions! What a cop-out!
The added-on cost of the new terminal was the ball-cruncher, so they said, but, if they thought it outrageous and unfair, why didn’t they pack their bags and with a glorious flourish, tell the gang in Dublin to get stuffed, was it politics that kept them quiet?
Bringing in consultants smacks of a FF wheeze to get the controversy off the front pages and past the election date. After that, who’ll give a tinkers about the debt except the ripped-off traveling punter?
The government appointed Board is made up an interesting bunch of people. It includes a stainless steel manufacturer, a travel agent, a philanthropist, a brewer, and a fish exporter.

John Cotter’s grant of permission by CCC to demolish an existing house and the construction of 14 no. apartments over basement car parking at “Manakin”, Well Road, Cork was granted by ABP despite the intervention of Cllr.Terry Shannon.
😮 Unfortunately the Board of ABP showed their true “professionalism”:rolleyes: again and went against the advice of their inspector who visited the site and viewed all the relevant documentation.

@daniel_7 wrote:

@daniel_7 wrote:

owen o callaghan has said recently that he has plans for two towers at mahon point one of which will be 32 storys and theres also plans for taller buildings else where in the city and in the docklands!maybe if dublins planners hade found taller buildings a few years ago it might not have become europes finest case of urban sprawl!

😮 Political journalist, Mary Smithwick’s Opinion page in tonight’s Evening Echo has a right rant against Apartment living to equal anything the Communities for Sustainable Development or their main supporter Cllr. David McCarthy could ever come up with.

The best before date for apartment blocks looms:
“WHY are we continuing to buy apartments as quickly as builders can throw them up?
A recent survey showed that three-quarters of apartment dwellers don’t want to live in such buildings in the future.
The findings are from Dublin, but could just as easily apply to Cork.
Those living in apartments complain about inadequate storage space, insulation and the size of their kitchens. They also worry about security, and don’t like the views from their concrete boxes.
Now, if only one out of every four apartment dwellers intends staying put, and all the rest intend migrating to some mythical suburb of three-bedroom semis, what’s going to happen all the blocks of apartments currently dotted around our cities?
No one really wants to live in them, and they’re destined to become the ghettos of the future the very bottom rung on the accommodation ladder for the desperate and broke”.

@Sue wrote:

Yes but Paul, what kind of precedent would it send if the government was to say: “this is the best route for the M3, but because environmental nutters are going to make our lives a misery for the next five years and delay the project in the courts, we’re going to move it elsewhere.” It would be a huge victory for the anti-road lobby, without them having to spend a penny or a day in court, and it would fuel their campaigns against other bypasses and motorways.

No, let them do their worst in court. A la Carrickmines and Glen of the Downes, the road will get built in the end and by-passing motorists will wonder what the hell the fuss was ever about

In relation to the 26 archaeological sites of interest, the question is how important are any of them? Should the march of a nation be held up because a Celt once sharpened a stone in a particular field? I think a site should be more than just “of interest” before a lot of money is spent excavating it…

:confused: I have no axe to grind one way or the other on this but if some “environmental nutters” were not dismissed on other projects Galway (and another 6-8 County’s in Ireland) may have drinking water that is above the quality of an open sewer in Bombay, 40% of the “essential” housing built in the past 4 years we were told we needed urgently would not be vacant, Georgian houses would not be demolished to make way for “landmark” steel and plastic piles.
🙂 At least the “nutters” won the day when the majestic Cobh Cathedral was to be vandalized in the name of progress?

@Paddyboy wrote:

Hi folks!
dont know for how long ive been browsing your comments & love to hear whats happening around da city. For the first time im in a position to buy a property that i LOVE. Not sure if im mad or not but ive put in a bit for the chapel for sale on the lee road /our ladys hospital.
It consists of the 900sq ft chapel on 0.8ac with full planning for a bistro/rest designed by coughlan de kyser etc…Suppose guys, ide love your help /views /advice with regard to what i can do with the chapel. What i want to do is live in it after doing a renovation job similar to those ive seen on grand designs on the tv….but ive no interest in building a bar/bistro thingy….and i dont have that kind of money…..What ide love to do is build some kind of contemp apartments which i could rent out….but yet wont ruin the appearence/character of the church…. Maybe im half mad but I have the money to raise enought the purchase & restoration of the chapel as my residence…..If i could do something with the remaining grounds….I may be able to live in this fab building with a reasonable mortgage………..Ide love if you can give me some ideas Thanks, Patrick

That Church is a beautiful building and would make a fine single or multi residence.
Before putting money into sub dividing the property into multi units I would suggest taking advice from a property expert as apartments to the rear of the Church are still plentiful after years on the market (see link below), The selling agent should be able to steer you in the right direction.
Best of luck whichever path you take.

https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=5077&page=33 post 821

@PVC King wrote:

Bring back the very capable Simon Coveney he is someone who would be very welcome at cabinet level.

These last few posts highlight the urban rural divide more than any other in planning terms. Over the wall imn Kerry the Healy Rae school of cute hoorism dictates that to be pro all development wins votes. This Cllr appears to believe that being against all development is considered to be a viable route to power.

😮 You are right, put a “Blarney Woolen Mills” cap on Jerryboy Buttimer and he could be a clone of Healy-Rae?