SeamusOG

@ctesiphon wrote:

So the revised clue for word three is:

Here, on Fergus, I’ll buy and sell you at the races. (9)

So, it must be somewhere in “Newmarket”. Or near there.

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

scrub that aungier street is still d2

It is, but I think adjoining streets like Bishop Street (for example) are D8.

No, I think they’re to create a proper, DCC-approved rockery for the snozberry bushes.

Yes Indeed. The big project of his reign was supposed to be the link-up of the two LUAS lines. Despite everybody going out of their way to make their contribution on that project in a seriers of open days about a year ago, there still hasn’t been a word.

@Irish Independent, Today wrote:

Metro to save millions by banning tunnelling payouts

HOUSEHOLDERS and businesses affected by work on Dublin’s new underground Metro won’t get a cent in compensation for extensive tunnelling under their property.

A new law kickstarted yesterday by the Government put a nil value on land below 10 metres.

The timing could not have been better as the exact route of the Metro – from Dublin city centre to Swords via Dublin Airport – is due to be announced by Transport Minister Martin Cullen as early as tomorrow. Environment Minister Dick Roche said the end of underground compensation will potentially save “both time and money in the Metro project”.

It means the millions in compensation paid out to householders and businesses as a result of the Dublin Port tunnel underground tunnelling will not be repeated during the Metro project.

It has been confirmed that the new Metro line will run underground from St Stephen’s Green through the Grafton Street area, past the gates of Trinity College and down Westmoreland Street to O’Connell Bridge. From there it will continue underground to the revamped Mater Hospital, and underground stations at Drumcondra, Griffith Avenue and DCU.

From DCU, the agency’s preferred route is overground to two stations at Ballymun, Metro Park and on to the airport, where it will run underground again.

From the airport, it will travel overground to Fosterstown, Swords Estuary and finally the terminus in Lissenhall. One of the city-centre station’s entrances is to be located on the northside, possibly at Bachelors Walk, the other on the southside of the river. The Railway Procurement Agency believes that underground mining will reduce traffic restrictions during the underground works at the station. These are set to start in 2009.

Meanwhile, rogue builders with a history of unfinished or badly left estates will be refused planning permissions under new laws approved yesterday in a new planning and development act.

The minister kickstarted section 9 of the Act which will enable planning authorities to withhold planning permissions from rogue developers on the basis of past history of non-compliance and not completing housing estates.

“Any such abuse of our planning code cannot be tolerated,” said Mr Roche yesterday.

“In the past, some rogue developers have been getting away with not doing their jobs.”

Until now, planning authorities have been required to prove an applicant’s history of non-compliance with permissions or conditions of permissions before the High Court before they could act.

Burden

The new measure reverses the burden of proof and should make it easier for local authorities to tackle bad developers, insisted the minister.

Other important provisions approved yesterday include new powers for An Bord Pleanala to deal with appeals made primarily, or solely, with the intention of extracting money from the applicant.

Mr Roche said occasional spurious and groundless appeals were an unfortunate feature of our system.

“They pervert our democratic processes and divert time and resources away from dealing with authentic and justified appeals,” he said.

Treacy Hogan

I remember reading that there was some chancer in Booterstown who was claiming compensation for damage to his house caused by the port tunnel works.:D

It also looks like they may be sticking a station on the metro under the actual river. Does anyone know of a precedent for this elsewhere?

Hmm….near a rugby pitch.

Could it be the loading bay for the Samuel Beckett theatre in Trinity – where all the backdrops and so forth are delivered. Somewhere around there.

@The Denouncer wrote:

I heard the ‘debacle’ at the time wasn’t solely due to the lack of stadia in Ireland, but problems in Scotland aswell.

It’s very possible that that was the case, particularly as far as UEFA were concerned. As far as I recall, the joint bid proposed the use of 3 stadia in Glasgow (Celtic, Rangers and Hampden), 2 in Edinburgh, 2 in Dublin and a possible other stadium in, I think, Dundee. So the tournament would have been taking place in just four cities.

The winning bid, Switzerland and Austria, has the tournament taking place in 8 cities (4 in each country). The nordic bid would, as far as I remember, have had a similar arrangement (give or take, two cities in each of the four countries involved).

From a security aspect, the Swiss/Austrian deal may be a much easier arrangement to handle, and there are also matters relating to overuse of particular pitches to be considered. For example, it probably wouldn’t have been possible to police two matches in Glasgow on the same day, so this means that pitches in the other cities would have to be used. As there were so few other cities involved, those pitches would probably be used more frequently than would be common in other tournaments.

In addition, the European Championship is generally considered to be a more difficult competition to progress in than the World Cup,, as there are almost no no-hopers present. A much higher percentage of the teams present are capable of actually winning the competition than would be the case at the World Cup. As a result, there are more likely to be more situations (on a percentage basis) where the teams that progress from the group phase are in doubt until the last minute of their last group matches (which take place simultaneously).

As an illustration, England score a last minute goal against Ireland in Croke Park to go to the quarter finals, at Ireland’s expense, while at the same time (in the same group) Serbia hold out for a 0-0 draw at Lansdowne Road to put Croatia out of the tournament.

How do you police the city after that?

1 also reminds me a bit of Loftus Lane, at the back of the whole cinema (Virgin/UGC) complex on Parnell Street. Unlikely to be, though, if it’s been placed in the 1950’s by Graham H, who knows considerably more than me. (And at a much tenderer age, too.:D )

@The RPA wrote:

From St.Stephen’s Green terminus OPTION E runs along St.Stephen’s Green North. At the Dawson St. junction the line splits with one track for trams heading north towards the Red Line running along Dawson St. as far as Nassau St. while the track for trams coming from the Red Line extends further east along St. Stephen’s Green North and runs along Kildare St. and Nassau St. before rejoining the other track in Nassau St. at the Dawson St. junction. From Nassau St. the line would continue into the lower part of Grafton St., College Green and Westmoreland St.. Approaching O’Connell Bridge the two tracks separate to run on each side of the traffic median on the bridge and continue into O’Connell St. running on each side of the median to connect with the Red Line at the junction of O’Connell St. and Abbey St.. Possible stop locations include Dawson St. (for trams heading towards the Red Line), Kildare St. (for trams heading towards the Green Line), Westmoreland St. and O’Connell St.

Perhaps someone could help out here, as I can’t seem to copy the picture illustrating option E.

It’s just that a thought occurred to me over the weekend about this possibility, which is comfortably the least favoured option on this forum.

And it’s this. If the trams were to go South instead of North along Dawson Street, and North instead of South along Kildare Street, it might help to reduce the conflicts between the trams and buses in and around TCD. There could be a tram stop on the East side of Dawson Street (perhaps doubling with a station around the corner on the South side of Nassau Street), the West side of Kildare Street and the East side of Westmoreland Street]also travelling in the same direction[/I] to perhaps a couple of hundred metres (between the bottom of Dawson Street and the stretch around the front of TCD), with the loss only of the stops at the front of TCD, the potential conflicts could be seriously reduced.

The same kind of thing could also be achieved by reversing the bus flows along Dawson Street and Kildare Street. With the current arrangements around St. Stephen’s Green, that might even be more favourable.

Anybody get what I’m on about?

@Morlan wrote:

think rail.

I know, it’s that redbrick building on Railway Street with the nice windows. And that grey thing on the roof.:D

Seriously though, Morlan, should we be looking at locations in or around the Pearse Street/Westland Row area?:o