PTB

I just want to express serious doubt that there is space on horgans quay for a 5000 seat arena. I just cant see on fitting into that long sliver of land. Has there been and plans drawn up for now one might fit in?

Secondly: Pairc ui Chaoimh. Is there enough space there either for a large stadium? Might it require some slight change in the orientation of the pitch? And would there be scope for a second tier because that would look pretty cool?
I remember the time when ireland was bidding for the Euro 2008 championships with scotland. I rember that there were three stadiums proposed for ireland and they were all in dublin. Anyone from abroad would see how Dublin-centric this government was not to have made an effort to have provided a stadium outside of dublin, not even in the second city. It would have left the rest of teh country almost totally out of the thing. Irelands comtribution alone was paltry compared to Scotlands 8 stadiums and none of irelands three suggested stadiums were definite (Bertie Bowl, Croke Park and landstown road(disallowed due to terracing)). To be honest there is only one top-class stadium in Ireland. I would be great if there was a brand new stadium built with good capacity and a striking design that was open for all sports. That however is unlikely. Very unlikely. Cork GAA officials letting soccer and rugby use PuC at their wish? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ah etc.

oh and if a staduim was to be built i think it would go through the planning process fairly smoothly due to the lack of residents in close proximity to the stadium

It’s been done before in Kerry

In fact it has. I remember some time ago in the property section of the Irish Examiner there was a feature on a 20 year old round house out in Dingle/An Daingean that was for sale. It wasn’t a monolithic dome as it had a slated roof to the best of my recollection. There was a few pictures of the inside and the house seemed to have a bespoked layout. To be honest i wasn’t very impressed with the design. A house like that must be very aqward in it’s layout.Nothing is really going to line up flush with outer wall like kitchen units or couches so it restricts where things can be put. Also if the house has a bespoked layout the rooms are going to be funnel shaped. I certainly wouldn’t want to live in one. To be honest the houses in that monolithic dome website look hideous.

Kudos on the top notch post there Graham…

A few years ago when a certain development in Rathcormac ( Between Fermoy and Cork ) was built the locals described the monstrocity ‘LEGOLAND’. You can see this development on the southern approach to the village on the main Cork to Dublin road) Most people thought that this was a once off – one that slipped through the planning system. But now this type of development is the norm. At a glance the windows appear to be flush with the wall and the colours are a delightful mixture of sandy yellow and terracotta orange. As a plus the PVC sofits have been abandoned for no sofits at all

The most irritating thing about these developments is how they are marketed. The words ‘Luxury’ ‘Spacious’ ‘Architect designed’ and ‘Delux’ have lost all their meaning and have become useless cliches. Worst of all are the ‘Only 40 minutes from Dublin ones’. 40 minutes if you have a helicopter

Did I see a bit of the north docklands development plan in the Examiner a day or two ago? I though that there would have been some mention of it at this thread. Has it slipped beneath the radar?

Sample of tidal waterway under city-centre streets. Most of these waterways were culverted in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This old waterway was exposed near the junction of St Patrick’s Street and Grand Parade during pavement refurbishment in February 2005.
This is actually realy intresting when you think of it as cork was once just small islands criss crossed by the river lee as shown in the first photo and most the streets in the centre island (city centre) have the lee running under it .

Are there culverts all the way along Patricks street, Grand Parade and South Mall? I was aware that culverts existed but thought it was on a smaller scale. T’would be interesting to take a boat through them sometime though I wouldn’t hold out any hope of finding any crocodiles in there like the urban myths.

Sometimes I think that tis a bit of a pity that the waterways were filled in because it would be incredible to live in a city like Venice. Although that would have is own drawbacks. A Patricks street filled with water would make shopping difficult. And I hear that Venice has odour problems and is slowly sinking. But it would look incredible.

I’ld love to see the Water street development being built. Though it has been scaled back a lot.

I think that construction will begin on the Grand Parade plaza vrey soon. They already have started putting a new road system in place around Tuckey street. As for being overdue I think it was supposed to start some time now anyway.

Dose anyone have any images of the sculpture that was put up outside the City Quarter development? I read about it in the Echo but the pictures weren’t much good. While I’m typing about sculptures I may as well ask about the new sculpture in the Cork university hospital. I read that a fine sculpture called Firefly was errected there. Any pics?

I’m not too keen on Trolley Buses. They look like some sort of freakish bus/tram that some mad engineer came up with some time in a dark castle in Germany. Exactly what are the benefits of Trolley Buses oves normal buses?

And a rail line to fermoy would be a huge white elephant. There simply isin’t the population to justify it. There was a line that went from Mallow through Fermoy to Waterford but it was torn up thirty years ago. But it might be some way viable in thirty or forty years.

I think that a light rail following on or about the route of the old Carrigaline railway should be a priority for cork county council.It would service Blackrock, Mahon, Rochestown, Passage West, Monkstown, Carrigline and maybe Ringaskiddy. Then onwards through the city centre to Ballincollig at the other end. And if it’s going through Ringaskiddy it may as well be actual rail considering the port authority is re-locating the port down there, but that would need a tunnel under the lee to connect it to the rail network. Regardless of that some sort of rail is needed for Carrigaline since about 87% of it’s folk go to work in a car – the highest rate in Ireland, and it’s on use building more roads. Carrigline is on it’s third relief road now I think.

Actually looking back at the Grand Canal Square plans it struck me that that develoment has the potential to become a decent landmark for Dublin.