RandlePMcMurphy

Originally posted by anto
so does Cork still need such a website? Things have improved in the meantime?

Some things have improved Anto – a lot of the potholes have gone (many of the roads have been re-surfaced) but the streets are still a mess. The main street has been completely re-surfaced as well. New paving and a new road layout have improved it to a certain extent, however the new paving has, in many places, been layed carelessly. Gaps in between the cut stone paving have been filled with tarmac! And the paving is not being maintained so already it is stained with chewing gum, and drink stains – in many European cities paving like this is maintained by power washing it nightly – this is not being done in Cork so it is deteriorating rapidly.

So, in short, to answer your question Anto, a site like realcork.com is still needed despite some improvements in the city.

RandlePMcMurphy
Beamish

Originally posted by chewy
the only reaon they invited you there was to tell you to shut the site, i have to agree with everyone else the wings look as they should.. i presume “a lick of paint” was only a phrase

the back looks terrible is it seen?

well done i guess keep it up

The back is seen – not from South Main Street where the front is – but from Crosses Green Quay, Wandesford Quay and French’s Quay. To see where these are have a look at the map of Cork available at http://www.corkcorp.ie/maps/cc_main_map_03.html.

Thanks for the interest,

RandlePMcMurphy,
Beamish

Apologies for not responding to the various posts on this thread but I was away last week until the end of the week.

I had a meeting with Beamish on last Friday 13th and they told me “There is nothing you can do that will make us change this”!

To put this comment in context, I was invited to a meeting in Beamish where I met with 3 executives from Beamish Eamonn O’Sullivan, customer services director; Stephen Murphy financial director and Jim D’Arcy production director. They told me that the discussions were to be considered confidential as there was information they were giving me which could be considered commercially sensitive so I won’t go into any of the specifics mentioned.

Basically what they said was they are aware of the state of the building but that they are under commercial pressures and that the commercial pressures force them to prioritise other projects before the restoration of their buildings or put another way Beamish knows about the state of the buildings but doesn’t feel strongly enough about it to spend the necessary money on restoration.

Then they asked me, in light of this new information, would I take the site down?!!!

Of course, I said no – my logic was that if I left the site up that might put pressure on them and force the restoration up their list of priorities – taking the site down would do nothing for the buildings.

This is when they told me that there was nothing I could do which would make any difference to their priorities. Then they said they were very disappointed with my decision to leave the site up, thank you and goodbye. It was unbelieveable, having said I was going to leave the site up and giving my reasons, I was more or less thrown out – very politely, Stephen showed me to the door and said “Eamonn says goodbye”!

I can understand that they have competitive pressures – what business doesn’t – but they seriously expected that having told me that, that I would immediately take the site down, thereby taking away any reason for them to do anything about it.

By the way, the site is currently 21st in Google’s found set in searches for the term Beamish, 7th in searches on search.msn.com and 6th in Yahoo! – thanks to everyone who has linked to the site so far. If anyone else could link to the site using the word Beamish as the link (i.e. Beamish) I would be delighted – do it in a blog or a site link – either works.

Just to keep you up to speed, I received the following response from Beamish this afternoon:

I received an email from Eamonn O’ Sullivan – the customer Services Director of Beamish today in response to this site and my email to Beamish about it. Eamonn is offering me a tour of the plant – I will be taking up this offer some time after the 12th of August and will post my impressions to this site

Here’s Eamonn’s email:

Dear Mr. Raftery,

Further to your note to our Managing Director, Mr. Alf Smiddy, regarding
the buildings on our site at South Main Street.

I am the person responsible for a number of upgrade projects at the Brewery
for 2004/2005, and while acknowledging your comments, I do believe that,
rather than exchanging emails or correspondence via websites, it would be
helpful if you took the time to come and see us here at the Brewery and
perhaps we could update you on our various upgrade plans for the site in
2004/2005.

I would be obliged if you could please contact me as soon as possible on my
mobile (08x xxxxxxx), I don’t have a telephone number for you, so we may
agree a time and date. I am out of the country until next Monday, but
will be glad to take your call at any time.

Yours sincerely,

Eamonn O’Sullivan

Eamonn O’ Sullivan,
Customer Services Director

I will be taking Eamonn up on his offer late next week – I’ll report back on how we get on and what if any news comes out of this meeting.

RandlePMcMurphy.

Originally posted by anto
don’t think does front wings look too bad, were never painted why start now? Obviously the rear of the building is shabby

Unfortunately my photographic skills are not up to much so the photo’s don’t show how bad the wings look in reality (esp. when contrasted with the centre portion).

“Why start now?”
Well, why paint any building? Why not let it accumulate dirt over decades?
Pride in their brand would be one reason I would put forward and pride in their environs would be another but looking at the state of disrepair they have allowed their buildings fall into (remember this is their Head Office!) pride is obviously not a word in Beamish’s vocabulary!

Thanks for the interest,

RandlePMcMurphy.