The 1980s on Dublin’s northside, dole queues leak onto shabby streets, friends enjoy banter in waiting in line, and in their endless supply of free time, their chat concerns their dreams, for one, dissatisfied with the music Ireland is producing, they could be ‘the blacks of Ireland,’ and bring soul to Dublin, Jimmy Rabitte has aspirations of the life fandango and from his parents house in the north inner-city he begins to assemble the greatest band in the world. The Commitments showed a happier side of Dublin during a recession which now pales in significance to the current one; it showed the potential for creativity and ambition at a time of hopelessness.
The Commitments are back, and the bad times are too. Dole queues are thronged again. There are contrasts between the different people signing-on; the pain of so many has been well documented, particularly those supporting families, but within the twenty-somethings there is a different atmosphere. They are just out of college, they are well used to doing nothing and surviving on very little money; for many of them the recession will have seen an improvement in their circumstances. They will be the one’s poised, and indeed assigned to the task of rebuilding the country. That is of course, if they decide to stay.
In the 1980s the twenty-somethings were probably less likely to have had a college education. Twenty years ago those twenty-somethings could hardly of anticipated the unprecedented wealth Ireland would enjoy, and even if they did they would be even less likely to believe that the Government who made it happen would then destroy it in two years. But twenty years of free third-level education finds a generation of our best and brightest wasting their expertise in a social welfare office built during the great building boom at the turn of the 21st century.
The social welfare office the Navan Road is bright and airy; here a group of twenty-something friends gather for their monthly sign on, the group connected by a brother and sister and their friends who all happen to live in Dublin 7, all, coincidentally, have surnames that fall between F and J. The second Wednesday of every month has become a sort of social outing for the group.
“We’re like the Commitments, unemployed but living the life fandango,” said Robin Jardine, graduate architect who found just one month’s work in an architect’s since graduating and has now turned his attention to producing cider as alternative to a profession in which there is up to 70% unemployment. He hopes to turn a hobby into a career by becoming a craft brewer; he collects free apples from an orchard on the grounds of UCD, and is currently producing the cider at a farmhouse just outside Graigenamana in County Kilkenny with another unemployed friend who lives there, he himself a musician on his third album.
Robin’s sister Jacinta, Heather Gray and Carl Giffney are all artists; they all graduated from NCAD in the last two years and see the limited potential in finding a job as the opportune time to further their artistic inclinations. It has often been the case that it is in recessions that creativity will flourish.
Rather than languish in dole queues though, there is another option, an option the Irish have traditionally excelled at. Three of those spoken to approached FÁS with a view to up-skilling were asked if they had considered emigrating. Many graduates want to stay, or at least leave on their own terms but decision to stay, it appears, is the harder choice to make.
For Ann-Marie Fallon another graduate architect, it seems the time has come and, having waited two years already, will not waiting any longer. She has an interview with a recruitment agency in London next week. "Apart from everything, I quite like Ireland and never thought I'd see the day I would be abandoning it. I held out so long in the hope things would turn for the better, but I'm regretting that I stayed around as much as I did."
Aside from artisan indulgences, there is further scope for staying put. Kieran Flood who holds a degree in biology from Trinity College Dublin, has been volunteering with the Irish Wildlife Trust for over a year and a half. He undertook a study of the newt population of Ireland as part of his work, and submitted his report this week. “Yeah, I’m enjoying work but I think that by this time next year I’d want to be getting a pay cheque,” he said.
Roisin Grimes who holds a degree in European Studies for the University of Limerick and spent two years working in Canada before unfortunately timing her return for late 2008 is currently volunteering with CityWise, a programme for educating children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in Dublin. “What I really want to do is change career. I did this to see if I’d like it, I love it, I love working with the kids and I’m hoping to get into St Pat’s next year.”
Before settling for emigration, Ann-Marie Fallon, decided to “do something constructive”, and has up-skilled, including doing an EU certificated Passive House Planners course, but until she does two years work in professional practice, she cannot call herself an architect, “I need to be mentored. I can only call myself an architectural graduate not an architect. I cannot practice, I cannot sign off on construction, I cannot advertise.”
Some of her friends are participating in FÁS’s Work Placement Programme for unemployed graduates; they aren’t in the Navan Road Social Welfare office today because despite still receiving benefit payments, they do not need to sign on each month. The scheme affords graduates the opportunity to gain practical professional experience in their field. As part of the scheme, participants are not paid but can continue to receive welfare payments. Some employers are taking advantage of the scheme however so it’s not something that will be appeal to everybody.
The group of twenty-somethings emerge from the Navan Road social welfare office into a crisp fresh morning, Kieran is going up to the Irish Wildlife Trust’s office in Glasnevin, Robin’s going to go to Graigenama later in the day for the next stage of the cider making process which he hopes will be ready before Christmas, Roisin is going back to do prepare for her class in Ballyfermot tomorrow and the artists will go for midmorning coffee and a trip to Tesco in back in Phibsboro.
Emerging adulthood is the term given to post-pubescence nowadays, a time for dawdling in college and experiential pursuits like joining a band or being an artist or a cider brewer, before settling into a career somewhere closer to thirty. Free of the unfortunate burdens facing those with families and negative equity, the twenty-somethings take the time to experiment and find their way. It’s not their mess, but it is their opportunity.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Leftover Space
The scourge of wasteland is becoming familiar place across the country as the recession continues to unravel. Plenty has already been spoken on the overbearing land greed and waste that was so abundant; the blight of ghost estates, the irresponsible one-of housing, the large building sites abandoned over night, the west coast ravaged by holiday homes, and the ill considered after-thought approach public spaces. That theme echoed at the weekend as abandoned, empty land at Cherrywood cannot be used for a Luas park-and-ride facility because the lands have been taken over by NAMA. However, with blame being apportioned and the wheels of justice seemingly beginning to turn as Jim Kennedy and four former Fianna Fáil councillors were last week charged with corruption, now is the time to question what is to be done with what has been left over.
In the vacuum left by the Celtic Tiger steam train, creativity is afforded the opportunity to germinate. Last weekend, members of the Duffy and Gerbola circuses called on local authorities to turn disused sites in town centres into traditional village greens, creating performance spaces and funfair and festival areas. Tara Gerbola, who runs Circus Gerbola with her husband, Michael, alludes to the land greed that authorities got caught up in. “Once every town had a village green to host events, but councils began closing them in the property boom and selling them off for development,” she said.
In France and England, village greens are seen as intrinsic to community and are specifically designated for performance events. On Cork Street last week, a disused plot brought the excitement of the circus to the inner-city; this the first time in decades the circus was permitted back into Dublin city centre with Booterstown and Kilmainham the closest it had previously been allowed.
Such initiatives require minimal capital to get them started, consider the increasingly popular urban farming initiatives, they simply need space. But in the instance that capital is available, indeed when it is thrust forward by a property developer with some inclinations of an apparent civic duty and plenty of land to do something with it, the potential becomes much more exciting. ‘The Parlour,’ Harry Crosbie’s civic space in front of the newly developed O2 was last week finally given permission to be built. The project was born out of the recession when original plans, like so much else, were abandoned indefinitely, but then Crosbie isn’t one to resign himself to defeat.
Furthermore, on Tuesday, it was reported that Dublin City Council and the Dublin Port Company were considering a proposal by Crosbie to relocate the city’s cruise ship terminal to a site closer to the heart of the city at the East-Link Bridge, he proposed to soften the area in front of it with paving and trees to allow visitors the opportunity to engage the city better – inevitably through his nearby civic space to where the Luas will take them into the city centre.
Primary objectors to the Parlour were Crosbie’s partners in the O2, Live Nation, who argued that the 100 painted shipping containers used to build it will “mask” up to a third of the O2 creating a “severe” impact on the protected structure. As a temporary development, An Bord Pleanála granted permission on that premise and that it would add to the vitality of the area.
Vitality that most would concur is very much required in that part of the city. The question thus is asked, will it work. As is tradition, Dublin’s epicentre is again drifting east, but its social centre still clings to the O’Connell – Grafton Street spine and tentatively reaches toward the new city in brief flirtations for work or concerts. Crosbie ambitiously expects his new civic space to be used to host small concerts, for showing sport on large screens, political rallies and farmers’ markets. Rather suggestive of the circus families’ village green ideals despite being quite peripheral to the established city centre. He says “It will be a low-cost means of injecting some energy into land that is lying idle.” He expects it to me a “mini-Covent Garden,” however Covent Garden lies between Oxford Street and the Strand in the West-End, in the heart of London, not at its edge.
It remains to be seen if it will work, but Crosbie’s been proven right before. In the run-up to the recent Open House exhibition, Pauline Byrne of Treasury Holdings called for education in the area of civic pride to be increased; “The private realm dominates in this country, civic spaces and things in the public realm are seen as leftover. Civic pride needs to be part of our education,” she said. This, of course, ties in with what the circus families are saying; good public spaces have tended to be scarce in Dublin.
We have seen massive endeavour fall to unfortunate failure at the invariably barren Smithfield Plaza, of which similar to the Parlour had been proposed, and tokenism such as the little known outdoor theatre on the grounds of the civic offices at Wood Quay. There have been successes though, despite some anti-social behaviour, particularly on Eden Quay, the boardwalk is hugely popular, and few may remember Temple Bar Square 20years ago when it was merely an underused car park, not least the booksellers, buskers and al-fresco diners who now frequent it.
Dublin still lacks a Trafalgar Square or Place de la Concorde type place to gather however; the Grand Slam heroes had Dawson Street and the 2002 World Cup heroes, not afforded the open-top bus, were shifted to the Phoenix Park on health and safety grounds. The break in the trees at the GPO on O’Connell Street is an attempt, although meagre one, but then that’s all that really could be made at that location without knocking Ann Summers.
So it has to be said, there’s some merit in what Crosbie’s proposing. Here is a committed capitalist, owning swathes of the emerging part Dublin city, some used, some underused, some regularly used, but by some strange qwerk, his developer greed is veiled in laudings of an altruistic inclination. He has shaped much of the Docklands, but has been wise enough to locate public buildings at critical points. He opened the O2 and the Grand Canal Theatre during a recession and regularly packs both; and he beat Dublin City Council to the erection of the Wheel of Dublin beside the O2 on the site where he had originally planned a U2 museum. It seems Crosbie and the circus families at least concur that entertainment is viable way through the recession.
He was also involved in hiring a Pritzker Prize winning architect to design the National Conference Centre, a seemingly valid approach to a building of such importance, however it is over-scaled and built as an infill building with one questionably interesting facade; its execution will incur debate amongst Dubliners for generations. The hope is that the Parlour will be more than something for Dubliners to talk about, but rather somewhere for Dubliners to gather as city dwellers are sporadically supposed to; it’s only temporary and peripheral but its success could at least encourage other wasteland owners to think a little more imaginatively.
In the vacuum left by the Celtic Tiger steam train, creativity is afforded the opportunity to germinate. Last weekend, members of the Duffy and Gerbola circuses called on local authorities to turn disused sites in town centres into traditional village greens, creating performance spaces and funfair and festival areas. Tara Gerbola, who runs Circus Gerbola with her husband, Michael, alludes to the land greed that authorities got caught up in. “Once every town had a village green to host events, but councils began closing them in the property boom and selling them off for development,” she said.
In France and England, village greens are seen as intrinsic to community and are specifically designated for performance events. On Cork Street last week, a disused plot brought the excitement of the circus to the inner-city; this the first time in decades the circus was permitted back into Dublin city centre with Booterstown and Kilmainham the closest it had previously been allowed.
Such initiatives require minimal capital to get them started, consider the increasingly popular urban farming initiatives, they simply need space. But in the instance that capital is available, indeed when it is thrust forward by a property developer with some inclinations of an apparent civic duty and plenty of land to do something with it, the potential becomes much more exciting. ‘The Parlour,’ Harry Crosbie’s civic space in front of the newly developed O2 was last week finally given permission to be built. The project was born out of the recession when original plans, like so much else, were abandoned indefinitely, but then Crosbie isn’t one to resign himself to defeat.
Furthermore, on Tuesday, it was reported that Dublin City Council and the Dublin Port Company were considering a proposal by Crosbie to relocate the city’s cruise ship terminal to a site closer to the heart of the city at the East-Link Bridge, he proposed to soften the area in front of it with paving and trees to allow visitors the opportunity to engage the city better – inevitably through his nearby civic space to where the Luas will take them into the city centre.
Primary objectors to the Parlour were Crosbie’s partners in the O2, Live Nation, who argued that the 100 painted shipping containers used to build it will “mask” up to a third of the O2 creating a “severe” impact on the protected structure. As a temporary development, An Bord Pleanála granted permission on that premise and that it would add to the vitality of the area.
Vitality that most would concur is very much required in that part of the city. The question thus is asked, will it work. As is tradition, Dublin’s epicentre is again drifting east, but its social centre still clings to the O’Connell – Grafton Street spine and tentatively reaches toward the new city in brief flirtations for work or concerts. Crosbie ambitiously expects his new civic space to be used to host small concerts, for showing sport on large screens, political rallies and farmers’ markets. Rather suggestive of the circus families’ village green ideals despite being quite peripheral to the established city centre. He says “It will be a low-cost means of injecting some energy into land that is lying idle.” He expects it to me a “mini-Covent Garden,” however Covent Garden lies between Oxford Street and the Strand in the West-End, in the heart of London, not at its edge.
It remains to be seen if it will work, but Crosbie’s been proven right before. In the run-up to the recent Open House exhibition, Pauline Byrne of Treasury Holdings called for education in the area of civic pride to be increased; “The private realm dominates in this country, civic spaces and things in the public realm are seen as leftover. Civic pride needs to be part of our education,” she said. This, of course, ties in with what the circus families are saying; good public spaces have tended to be scarce in Dublin.
We have seen massive endeavour fall to unfortunate failure at the invariably barren Smithfield Plaza, of which similar to the Parlour had been proposed, and tokenism such as the little known outdoor theatre on the grounds of the civic offices at Wood Quay. There have been successes though, despite some anti-social behaviour, particularly on Eden Quay, the boardwalk is hugely popular, and few may remember Temple Bar Square 20years ago when it was merely an underused car park, not least the booksellers, buskers and al-fresco diners who now frequent it.
Dublin still lacks a Trafalgar Square or Place de la Concorde type place to gather however; the Grand Slam heroes had Dawson Street and the 2002 World Cup heroes, not afforded the open-top bus, were shifted to the Phoenix Park on health and safety grounds. The break in the trees at the GPO on O’Connell Street is an attempt, although meagre one, but then that’s all that really could be made at that location without knocking Ann Summers.
So it has to be said, there’s some merit in what Crosbie’s proposing. Here is a committed capitalist, owning swathes of the emerging part Dublin city, some used, some underused, some regularly used, but by some strange qwerk, his developer greed is veiled in laudings of an altruistic inclination. He has shaped much of the Docklands, but has been wise enough to locate public buildings at critical points. He opened the O2 and the Grand Canal Theatre during a recession and regularly packs both; and he beat Dublin City Council to the erection of the Wheel of Dublin beside the O2 on the site where he had originally planned a U2 museum. It seems Crosbie and the circus families at least concur that entertainment is viable way through the recession.
He was also involved in hiring a Pritzker Prize winning architect to design the National Conference Centre, a seemingly valid approach to a building of such importance, however it is over-scaled and built as an infill building with one questionably interesting facade; its execution will incur debate amongst Dubliners for generations. The hope is that the Parlour will be more than something for Dubliners to talk about, but rather somewhere for Dubliners to gather as city dwellers are sporadically supposed to; it’s only temporary and peripheral but its success could at least encourage other wasteland owners to think a little more imaginatively.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Transport 21 – Wonderful Shortcomings
On the surface of it, much of what Transport 21 aspires to is great, but it is fundamentally flawed in so many ways. Do the two existing Luas lines need to link up if, as the Green Party proposes, Metro North is extended south from St Stephen’s Green to connect to the Luas green line at Beechwood station from which point the Luas and Metro trams would share the same tracks, thus connecting the green line to the red line on O’Connell Street, the airport and Swords so negating the need for the BX line in the first place? The RPA yesterday announced they were finalising plans for the BXD line which will ultimately connect to Broombridge, and perhaps one day Finglas, but for now the RPA are planning to spend money on two lines that run the same route, while at the same time digging up at least a third of St Stephen’s Green park, largely so that Metro North can simply turn around. Metro North will happen, the money will eventually come from somewhere, it will take a long time to happen and it will be a good service when it arrives, it’s just a pity the important decisions that can easily be made now are being ignored. The BX line will go ahead, of course, so in conceding defeat my parting shot queries one last detail, that of the proposed route. It will add to an already congested O’Connell Street going north, whereas if both north and south tracks were accommodated on Marlborough Street it would bring some much needed re-activation to that street – although also, owing the acoustic impact of two tram lines, surely hasten the Abbey Theatre’s exodus from its current location (to the GPO we wonder?).
Advisors said 40m trams would be required on the Tallaght Line; the advice was ignored and the RPA have been pushing to expand to that ever since. Wrapping around Dublin Bay, the Dart only has half a catchment area, yet is invariably jammed at rush hour, the capacity of both Luas lines was never going to come close, yet were persisted with anyway. Linking Metro North to the green line would require an extension of platforms on the line, but that is a minimal intervention that would go some way to future-proofing the project. However, simple but important decision making remains aloof from the important people involved in the RPA. A feasibility study of a Luas line from Rathfarnam to Broadstone was undertaken in 2008 and the idea brought no further owing to some negative traffic disruption and problems to do with height clearance, the incline at Christchurch and the previously deemed unsuitable O’Donovan Rossa Bridge. A previous study finding the O’Donovan Rossa Bridge unsuitable surely begs the question why weren’t the two either side of it considered this time or as in the case of the BX line, a new one proposed. The line would’ve connected to the existing Green line at Nutgrove, the proposed Lucan line as well as the high capacity Dart line at Christchurch and potentially Glasnevin/Phibsborough or Broombridge and could’ve gone someway to reducing the need for the number 16 bus, some of which could then be deployed on Quality Bus Corridors elsewhere in the city; alas though it seems to have been abandoned despite being deemed feasible from Nutgrove and Rathfarmam to at least Christchurch. The proposal appears on the Green Party’s policy papers; it might be cynical to suggest the study was done to appease them in Government, but then that might also be the truth.
Why is the Lucan line proposed to terminate on College Green when it is likely plans to extend it to Grand Canal Dock, Ringsend and Poolbeg will be proposed when it is completed? Why was the Port Tunnel built too small for all trucks? How does it take two hours on the Western Rail Corridor to get from Galway to Limerick? Why do Sligo and Mayo people pay the same toll for the M4 when they only get half of what Galway people get? Why is the existing connection between Connolly and Hueston Station under the Phoenix Park not utilised? Why is Metro West not proposed to connect to the Dart at Howth and Dun Laoghaire? And what of integrated transport for Dublin City, the easiest item on that Transport 21 list of ‘things to do’, a pipe-dream surely? Consider the ungainly Loopline Bridge, it met much opposition and stirred controversy for its imposition on the Custom House facade in 1981, and the debate continues well over a hundred years later. Perhaps well-intentioned but ill-considered moves toward transport infrastructure is just our way. But look, it’s not just the public transport powers-that-be that do wonderful things but leave certain baffling shortcomings outstanding? Why did we build two of Europe’s finest sports stadiums and somehow not get the north-end right on either of them? There is sound rationale behind a lot of the decisions, but decisions toward better solutions could easily be made while these projects remain drawings. As to why they are not? It baffles the mind.
Advisors said 40m trams would be required on the Tallaght Line; the advice was ignored and the RPA have been pushing to expand to that ever since. Wrapping around Dublin Bay, the Dart only has half a catchment area, yet is invariably jammed at rush hour, the capacity of both Luas lines was never going to come close, yet were persisted with anyway. Linking Metro North to the green line would require an extension of platforms on the line, but that is a minimal intervention that would go some way to future-proofing the project. However, simple but important decision making remains aloof from the important people involved in the RPA. A feasibility study of a Luas line from Rathfarnam to Broadstone was undertaken in 2008 and the idea brought no further owing to some negative traffic disruption and problems to do with height clearance, the incline at Christchurch and the previously deemed unsuitable O’Donovan Rossa Bridge. A previous study finding the O’Donovan Rossa Bridge unsuitable surely begs the question why weren’t the two either side of it considered this time or as in the case of the BX line, a new one proposed. The line would’ve connected to the existing Green line at Nutgrove, the proposed Lucan line as well as the high capacity Dart line at Christchurch and potentially Glasnevin/Phibsborough or Broombridge and could’ve gone someway to reducing the need for the number 16 bus, some of which could then be deployed on Quality Bus Corridors elsewhere in the city; alas though it seems to have been abandoned despite being deemed feasible from Nutgrove and Rathfarmam to at least Christchurch. The proposal appears on the Green Party’s policy papers; it might be cynical to suggest the study was done to appease them in Government, but then that might also be the truth.
Why is the Lucan line proposed to terminate on College Green when it is likely plans to extend it to Grand Canal Dock, Ringsend and Poolbeg will be proposed when it is completed? Why was the Port Tunnel built too small for all trucks? How does it take two hours on the Western Rail Corridor to get from Galway to Limerick? Why do Sligo and Mayo people pay the same toll for the M4 when they only get half of what Galway people get? Why is the existing connection between Connolly and Hueston Station under the Phoenix Park not utilised? Why is Metro West not proposed to connect to the Dart at Howth and Dun Laoghaire? And what of integrated transport for Dublin City, the easiest item on that Transport 21 list of ‘things to do’, a pipe-dream surely? Consider the ungainly Loopline Bridge, it met much opposition and stirred controversy for its imposition on the Custom House facade in 1981, and the debate continues well over a hundred years later. Perhaps well-intentioned but ill-considered moves toward transport infrastructure is just our way. But look, it’s not just the public transport powers-that-be that do wonderful things but leave certain baffling shortcomings outstanding? Why did we build two of Europe’s finest sports stadiums and somehow not get the north-end right on either of them? There is sound rationale behind a lot of the decisions, but decisions toward better solutions could easily be made while these projects remain drawings. As to why they are not? It baffles the mind.
Friday, June 4, 2010
The Hunger
It seems begging on the streets of Dublin has reached chronic levels. Some are saying Dublin is going, or indeed has gone to Hell, but complaining that things aren’t the way they used to be anymore tends to be a staple of Irish people. A prominent Dublin charity spending €50,000 a month on food and the Capuchin Day Centre preparing 600meals a day, however, does confirm something of Dublin’s trouble. Walking idly around the city last week, it did seem quite prominent; at the ATM on Saint Stephen’s Green a sunburnt twenty-something lady in a sleeping bag, in the park with stories of needing a bus fare, on Baggot Street hassling smokers outside the pubs, one just beyond the canal at Milanos swimming in his own vomit, Saturday night on Harcourt Street and a flow of luckless men and women hoping to catch people coming out of the night-clubs, on any bridge over the Liffey, Wolfe Tone Park, under the Loop-line on Talbot Street, the list could be as long as Ulysses and the words to describe them might actually enable one to rebuild the city.
Why is the question, with recession the immediate answer. But the ‘why’ still lingers. Might it be said, harshly or otherwise, that being generous is akin to feeding a stray dog. Would they do it if they had no other choice? Would they do it because it had been too long since their last fix of heroin? Would they do it if it didn’t yield some return? Ours is not a country, of course, that turns its back on the hungry but if the problem is as serious as it clearly is, this country ought to be doing more – and that does not mean throwing coins into a styrofoam coffee cup.
Why is the question, with recession the immediate answer. But the ‘why’ still lingers. Might it be said, harshly or otherwise, that being generous is akin to feeding a stray dog. Would they do it if they had no other choice? Would they do it because it had been too long since their last fix of heroin? Would they do it if it didn’t yield some return? Ours is not a country, of course, that turns its back on the hungry but if the problem is as serious as it clearly is, this country ought to be doing more – and that does not mean throwing coins into a styrofoam coffee cup.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Soccer is Dead
Soccer is not dead, and calling it soccer is just the Irish psyche distancing itself from Association Football's 'prissy' nonsense. Last night's Champion's League game showed the side of football you would imagine FIFA should abhor; a master performance in defending yes, but also a display in gamesmanship the game could do without. A Mayo man at the National League Final last weekend was heard describe the referee as prissy, (the Mayo team awol as ever in Croke Park) you'd imagine he'd have had the same opinion of every Inter Milan player on the field in the Nou Camp, but the Gaelic and Association versions of the game are quite different when it comes to acceptable physical contact. Inter Milan were very effective, they came to do a job and did it well. They played ugly! They played 'fairly' - or what FIFA apparently deem fairly! And they played dead whenever a breath of physical contact was made.
Football is not dead; last year the Champions League Final was the most watched sporting event on the planet, for the first time beating the SuperBowl, but despite that football does still need to evaluate is policies on fairness. As Irish men, the pain of 'Hand of Frog' isn't likely to ever to be forgotten, but at least we now sympathise with the English for its prequel. That was debated long and hard, there is a more pressing issue - FIFA does have rules regarding play acting, it calls it 'simulation', but does laregly noting about it, surely, at the very least retrospective yellow cards at the highest level for simulation and blatant play-acting ought to be considered. Maicon's display in the right back corner where he got injured off the pitch and came back on to fall down and stop the game was appalling. Busquet's over-reaction that resulted in Motta's sending off was bad too, but both are tragically commonplace in the game, and what is done at the highest level is what is repeated by the under-10s around the world. Football's popularity is never likely to see a decline, but of its morality FIFA seems indifferent despite its claims.
Football is not dead; last year the Champions League Final was the most watched sporting event on the planet, for the first time beating the SuperBowl, but despite that football does still need to evaluate is policies on fairness. As Irish men, the pain of 'Hand of Frog' isn't likely to ever to be forgotten, but at least we now sympathise with the English for its prequel. That was debated long and hard, there is a more pressing issue - FIFA does have rules regarding play acting, it calls it 'simulation', but does laregly noting about it, surely, at the very least retrospective yellow cards at the highest level for simulation and blatant play-acting ought to be considered. Maicon's display in the right back corner where he got injured off the pitch and came back on to fall down and stop the game was appalling. Busquet's over-reaction that resulted in Motta's sending off was bad too, but both are tragically commonplace in the game, and what is done at the highest level is what is repeated by the under-10s around the world. Football's popularity is never likely to see a decline, but of its morality FIFA seems indifferent despite its claims.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Crosbie's Dublin
Unashamedly capitalist. Unashamedly optimistic. Unashamedly Dublin. In ‘the current climate’ Harry Crosbie carves his legacy. But what of it? The man was born on Clonliffe Road in Drumcondra, North Dublin and found his destiny down the road; men of this breed don’t tend to talk about destiny though, rather capitalism; Crosbie concerns himself with commercial ambition and veils it in allusions of civic responsibility. In a generation’s time, the kids will look out the river from the Sean O’Casey Bridge and inevitably say “They could have done better.” They being Crosbie and co and their legacy being the architecture they sanctioned.
There are arguments that the Dublin Docklands lack excitement in both urban and social terms; cold hearted glass facades instil passive disinterest as the business gentries move quickly through the wind tunnel, and the low rise, mono-height facade adorning the river where it yawns out to Dublin Bay ought to be taller. Crosbie has at least tried to stifle the mundane, he has plans for the Watchtower skyscraper by ScottTalonWalker on hold, he had wanted to build a 35metre Giant Man that people could walk around inside of, he is about begin a Dublin Eye at the Point Village site along with the due-to-commence Parlour civic space. The latter two projects both born out of the recession when Crosbie’s original plans, along with so many others, got put on indefinite hold. The man is nothing if not resilient. They are those things that haven’t happened (yet) – if he stopped now though he would still have left his mark.
In searching for immortality some will look to art, literature or sporting heroism – it is with architecture and urbanism in Dublin’s Docklands that Crosbie realises his. There are three particular built projects with which his legacy will be written; the refurbished Point Depot, the National Conference Centre at Spencer Dock and the Grand Canal Theatre. With due respect, the man went about his business in seemingly sound manner, though debate will resound over one of those buildings without cessation until some succeeding generation sees fit to knock it.
Crosbie’s ambition was always likely to ensure a world class music venue for the new Point Depot. Architecturally, he’s achieved as good as is possible for a music theatre, and the external facade, somewhat of a faux Tate Modern, is subtle enough with the historical stone and brick to reaffirm itself as the eastern bookend to the city.
Daniel Liebskind’s Grand Canal Theatre is another starcitect crossed off the list for Dublin. Liebskind’s theatre is certainly dramatic, and it along with Martha Schwartz’s landscaping has already become the icon for Grand Canal Dock; it is a drama some architects will abhor but it is a drama that will excite most others about the potential of the craft and thus serves a worthy purpose. As for opening a theatre in the ‘current climate’ Crosbie’s response is as defiant as you’ll have come to expect; "It's a very bad time to be opening a theatre, it's a very bad time to be doing anything," he said speaking to the Irish Independent in November 2009; "If I'm wrong, I'll be losing my own money because we don't get grants, this is capitalism . . . If it sells, we put it on and if it doesn't, we won't.”
Owning as much of the Docklands as he did, Crosbie was always going to play a significant impact in its realisation, the mundane nature of many of the buildings will be acceptable so long as the punctuations offer excitement, in old Dublin they are the spires and industrial chimneys; as the city’s epicentre drifts east public buildings will again punctuate. It is with the most prominent, however, that Crosbie has let his city down. Built with Treasury Holdings and Irish Rail Consortium, the National Conference Centre rises above all but the Beckett Bridge, over scaled and designed as an infill building with a single debatably interesting facade yet surrounded by water on two sides and a Luas line on a third. Employing Irish-American Pritzker Prize winning architect Kevin Roche implies fine intent on the part of the client; alas in urban and architectural terms it fails in every way – save giving Dublin dwellers something else to talk about.
Crosbie has said he “plans to build a better city.” He has done very well, but those kids on the Sean O’Casey Bridge in a generation’s time will be right, They should have done better.
There are arguments that the Dublin Docklands lack excitement in both urban and social terms; cold hearted glass facades instil passive disinterest as the business gentries move quickly through the wind tunnel, and the low rise, mono-height facade adorning the river where it yawns out to Dublin Bay ought to be taller. Crosbie has at least tried to stifle the mundane, he has plans for the Watchtower skyscraper by ScottTalonWalker on hold, he had wanted to build a 35metre Giant Man that people could walk around inside of, he is about begin a Dublin Eye at the Point Village site along with the due-to-commence Parlour civic space. The latter two projects both born out of the recession when Crosbie’s original plans, along with so many others, got put on indefinite hold. The man is nothing if not resilient. They are those things that haven’t happened (yet) – if he stopped now though he would still have left his mark.
In searching for immortality some will look to art, literature or sporting heroism – it is with architecture and urbanism in Dublin’s Docklands that Crosbie realises his. There are three particular built projects with which his legacy will be written; the refurbished Point Depot, the National Conference Centre at Spencer Dock and the Grand Canal Theatre. With due respect, the man went about his business in seemingly sound manner, though debate will resound over one of those buildings without cessation until some succeeding generation sees fit to knock it.
Crosbie’s ambition was always likely to ensure a world class music venue for the new Point Depot. Architecturally, he’s achieved as good as is possible for a music theatre, and the external facade, somewhat of a faux Tate Modern, is subtle enough with the historical stone and brick to reaffirm itself as the eastern bookend to the city.
Daniel Liebskind’s Grand Canal Theatre is another starcitect crossed off the list for Dublin. Liebskind’s theatre is certainly dramatic, and it along with Martha Schwartz’s landscaping has already become the icon for Grand Canal Dock; it is a drama some architects will abhor but it is a drama that will excite most others about the potential of the craft and thus serves a worthy purpose. As for opening a theatre in the ‘current climate’ Crosbie’s response is as defiant as you’ll have come to expect; "It's a very bad time to be opening a theatre, it's a very bad time to be doing anything," he said speaking to the Irish Independent in November 2009; "If I'm wrong, I'll be losing my own money because we don't get grants, this is capitalism . . . If it sells, we put it on and if it doesn't, we won't.”
Owning as much of the Docklands as he did, Crosbie was always going to play a significant impact in its realisation, the mundane nature of many of the buildings will be acceptable so long as the punctuations offer excitement, in old Dublin they are the spires and industrial chimneys; as the city’s epicentre drifts east public buildings will again punctuate. It is with the most prominent, however, that Crosbie has let his city down. Built with Treasury Holdings and Irish Rail Consortium, the National Conference Centre rises above all but the Beckett Bridge, over scaled and designed as an infill building with a single debatably interesting facade yet surrounded by water on two sides and a Luas line on a third. Employing Irish-American Pritzker Prize winning architect Kevin Roche implies fine intent on the part of the client; alas in urban and architectural terms it fails in every way – save giving Dublin dwellers something else to talk about.
Crosbie has said he “plans to build a better city.” He has done very well, but those kids on the Sean O’Casey Bridge in a generation’s time will be right, They should have done better.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Amateur Terrorist
Michael O’Leary reckons airport authorities should be discriminate in who they search and harass at airport screening stations – this wanderer has inclinations of agreement but warms the fence with some reservation. In (northern hemisphere) summer 2007, I went on holiday to Australia, stopping in Hong Kong on way there and New Zealand and Bangkok on the way back, and by the time the journey was complete back in Dublin around three months later I had carried a knife aboard nine different aircraft. The first three international airports failed to notice the knife in my carry-on rucksack before I finally did and wondered how many more would miss it before the end of the trip – they all did, eight different international airports, including terrorist bullseye London Heathrow twice; the others Dublin, Hong Kong, Cairns, Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney, and Bangkok. This despite the ridiculous set-up at Bangkok airport where one could buy duty free aftershave before the having it confiscated at security screen which cannot be passed beforehand. The knife, a simple craft knife used for topping pencils and cutting cardboard, perhaps not the most dangerous of weapons, but what we are led to believe was used by the September 11th hijackers.
Do the governments want to keep us scared? Is it not in their political interest to be keeping us happy instead? Is taking tweezers and knitting needles off eighty-year-old nuns going to stop aircraft hijackings? Would discriminate passenger screening speed-up movement through an airport? Yes, in likelihood, but wouldn’t it further antagonise a particular people, the extremists of which who you simply cannot talk sense to, and make them more likely to blow up a train which has no security screening. It begs the age old question, can we not just all get along, but then that question would hardly be ‘age old’ if the answer was ever yes. Antagonism and bad people are the cruel unfortunate nature of society. Fear, the rule of law, vigilantism and ‘ah sure what can ya do!’ are the instrumental attitudes we have defend it – craft knives alone won’t save/destroy the world, so chose your weapon.
Do the governments want to keep us scared? Is it not in their political interest to be keeping us happy instead? Is taking tweezers and knitting needles off eighty-year-old nuns going to stop aircraft hijackings? Would discriminate passenger screening speed-up movement through an airport? Yes, in likelihood, but wouldn’t it further antagonise a particular people, the extremists of which who you simply cannot talk sense to, and make them more likely to blow up a train which has no security screening. It begs the age old question, can we not just all get along, but then that question would hardly be ‘age old’ if the answer was ever yes. Antagonism and bad people are the cruel unfortunate nature of society. Fear, the rule of law, vigilantism and ‘ah sure what can ya do!’ are the instrumental attitudes we have defend it – craft knives alone won’t save/destroy the world, so chose your weapon.
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