merriman mick
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Not complaining about Dublin, Dublin’s great,
always has been, even 10 years ago. The city can learn from a little critique, there’s too much
litter, we can see that.Amsterdam is different, it’s like a theme-park,
it’s not just about large numbers of tourists though you’re right, it is comparable in it’s litter with Dublin.I live not far from you in Antwerp and it’s clean, this city is actually clean, it can happen.
This has got nothing to do with the state of the nation or the city, I’ve not complained about that, it’s just the litter.
It’s not just O’Connell street that’s dirty but the whole town. But sadly you know as well as the rest of us that this will never change,
it’s just the way things are, it’s hopeless.Cleaning, washing, repairing , replacing are all
maintenance tasks that the city deserves.Oddly enough, you will not often hear visitors
commenting on/complaining about the filth and
disrepair.Zara is nothing special, we’re talking Marks and Spencers quality. Mexx is much better quality and they have stores here.
Does anyone know when/ if the Ikea store is
ever going to materialize in Ireland ??
This country needs and deserves one.I rate the town-hall, complete railway station comlex, ferry-terminal and new pavilion site as being one of the better examples of town planning.
Thankfully, the original railway station has for many years functioned as an excellent restaurant after CIE short- sightedly sold it. I
suppose this was a stroke of luck as anyone who
uses the station will tell you they’ve made an awful
mess of it.In fact, the whole Dun Laoghaire urban set-up/
town-scape is an excellent example of “what the Victorians did for us” and didn’t they do it well.I’ve always admired the twin blocks of the first
phase of this site, the so-called bunkers.Sam Stephensons work grabs your interest and you find yourself staring at his buildings ever time you pass and these two were built 20 years ago.
The second phase is a great river-side building
and complements the bunkers nicely.Can we learn to love the bunkers, any
thoughts on this ??Good point, Connolly is one rambling, filthy, poorly maintained junkyard. I mean if anyone there (namely management) took any pride in the Irish railways they would make an effort to bring this transport hub into tip-top shape.
Instead visitors view weeds, litter and a general defeated and broken down air about the place. It’s not too late lads, a railway station is always worth salvaging. Who is in charge of CIE for goodness sake, they just let the whole rail infrastruture fall apart.It’s very obviously a group of people who don’t give a fiddlers about cleaning and properly maintaining a station or do they ever travel on the DART and see the state of the platforms that weren’t erected so long ago and see all the rubbish on the line, under the platforms, on the platforms and indeed up the walls.
I didn’t write that the car was the (part)
solution to the transport problem, I wrote that an improved, albeit limited, motorway system would work well for the whole island.I would suggest that we learn from the mistakes of people like Robert Moses and build one motorway and not several. This is after all Ireland and we do not have New York scale car problems.
I’m not seeking to exclude or penalize people without cars, we are seeking solutions here for people with cars. Anyway, it’s not about cars, it’s about the damn plague of heavy trucks on our unsuitable roads and channeling them onto a more suitable road, i.e. small scale motorway system.
Of course the motorway is only half the answer. How do you expect to get these people in their trucks off our pleasant country roads if you can’t offer them an alternative ?
You are not permitted to cycle on a motorway,
by the way.I love the train just as much as you do and I want to see it grow. The last 10 years have been good for rail in Ireland, it’s just a pity about CIE, just by looking at the filthy and poorly maintained stations you can see that there is no one in management who gives a fiddlers about the railway heritage in Ireland.
Let’s face it, roads are the answer to the transport crises. An efficent motorway system is a pleasure to drive on, I happen to like driving my car.
If we had decent clover-leaf exits and entrances on the M50 etc.. we wouldn’t have anything like the chaos that we now have. Those damn round-abouts are sooo dangerous, they have to be gotten rid of.You know, the suburban rail network in Dublin isn’t bad and it’s getting better. The maintenance leaves a lot to be desired though,
some of the stations have a couldn’t give a monkeys filthy look about them, dirt and weeds the whole length of the platform and indeed old clothes, broken prams and all kinds of rubbish propped under the platforms. We’ve all seen it and these stations are only a few years old.The existing railway infrastructure must be saved, this is a campaign well worth supporting. Who knows what population shifts and evolutions will occur in the future.
The reason why there are so many heavy trucks roaring across the country and scaring the bejaysus out of unsuspecting cycle-tourists and indeed the local populace is because there is no suitable roads infrastruture at all in Ireland, yes I’m talking about a decent motorway system that would take you from south to north and east to west
more safely and quickly.There is a dread of roads in Ireland and I can understand this but we can easily learn from the mistakes made in Britain and mainland Europe i.e. built one motorway, not two.
Good rail and road infrastructure is essential for economical and social growth.
You know, if someone had proposed such a plan only 40 or 50 years ago they would have had a real chance of finding people and money to back them.
If a bishop supported this scheme it would have gotten priority. The wrong people were in control then but now we know better.
I don’t live in Ireland but I can see images of gaudy Marian shrines in housing estates, blue and white and yellow Vatican flags,DeValera
kneeling before a bishop, eucharistic congresses, Mary queen of Ireland etc.etc……Didn’t we not leave that kind of thing behind us years ago ???
We all love skyscrapers but lets face it, Dublin is not a skyscraper city. If you want skyscrapers, go to New York or Chicago. If you want a largely intact Victorian city, Dublin’s the place to be. Have some confidence in the city and less derogatory comments about Irish abilities please, it’s getting old.
If there is one real problem in Dublin it’s the damn litter, it’s everywhere. The whole freakin place is covered in rubbish and no-one seems to notice.
It’s not only the Wellington monument that is worth going up to the park to see, the whole park itself,from the gates in, is an architectural wonder. Mc Kee barracks is a joy to behold.
Has anyone viewed it since it was done up ??You’re right Graham, the Matt Talbot isn’t bad.
While I may have implied I considered it bad, my comparison was more a reference to a sign
‘o the times. Both women and bridges are indeed good-looking and both represent their eras well. Joyce and Talbot were contempories and could easily have represented the conservative versus liberal thinking of their day. At last we have a fitting memorial to the great Joyce and a tribute to his broad mind.There is another great monument on O’Connell
Street that never gets any of the glory it deserves, namely the Parnell Monument. It’s a real humdinger I think and always had me twisting my neck in the car to get a better look as we drove past it when I was a kid.So don’t get hung up on details on the Spike,
check out the Parnell monument or have a look at the Wellington monument up in the park, it must be 150 years old and there’s not a chip off it.This bridge is the Jennifer Lopez of Dublins bridges whereas the Matt Talbot memorial bridge might be the Dana of Dublins bridges.
Very impressive in the flesh I might add,and oh so pleasing on the eye. The rest of town looks drab after seeing this beauty.
I love monumental projects so how about
Central bank, Dublin.
Stormont, Belfast.
Pigeon house power plant, Dublin.
I haven’t viewed the new designs but if what you describe as modern is in fact excellent quality contemporary design then I would choose this over non-contemporary design.
This is the only way real inventive architecture can be rewarded, by giving exciting new work a chance.
Anyone got any pics of the new designs ?
I agree with you WhiteCube, I live in Antwerp and everyone here is so damn nice and friendly
towards each other I sometimes expect to see Noddy driving by and offering me a lift to Toytown.Who wants to talk to their neighbour anyway, what you want when you come home after a hard days graft is some peace and quiet. So long as we’re friendly(a good morning to you etc…) and respectful towards our neighbours we can all live and let live.
Yes I’ve looked at page 50 and on seeing the
pics I can only say that it looks beter than I had expected after reading some of the comments on the base designs. I’ll look forward to seeing it again, probably after the official opening.Does anyone know if the red light at the top is permanent, it couldn’t be, could it ?
Take a look at pre-spike photos of O’Connell street and you begin to miss that soaring steel rod.
Saw the spike for the first time last week from the DART at Connolly station looking down Talbot street and I like the way it stands there, its size is perfect in relation to its surroundings.
Has anyone got any photos of the newly unveiled base designs please.
The next time I’m back I know where I’m going shopping, it’s a real buzz checking the thing out after you step out of the shops, is O’Connell street the center of Dublin once again or what ???
