The Brazilians are some boys to organise underground raves. Or in this case, overground, in a field.
The police were too busy having check points in the middle of the city for reasons known only to themselves
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Was the same during LOKdown.
Checkpoint nowhere near a county border.
Q: Where are you coming from?
A: Kildare, obviously.
Q: Where are you going?
A: Eh, remaining in Kildare, certainly not going to Kilkenny anyway. [nervous laugh]
Unenforceable waste of everyoneâs time.
Itâs fucking bizarre carry on. A checkpoint on the Clontarf rd Saturday, Sunday and this morning causing traffic jams. No county boundary within 15 miles.
Mannix Flynn blames people on bikes
Cllr Flynn said it wasnât up to gardai to police last nightâs scenes as it took place in a Dublin City Council controlled housing estate.
He said: "This is not something new.
"Dublin City Council reneged and betrayed and didnât do their care of duty to the residents here.
"They refused to turn up last night to deal with this issue. Itâs their estate - theyâre responsible for the management of that estate 24 hours a day - not An Garda Siochana.
"An Garda Siochana have enough things to do. And the guards didnât want to exacerbate the situation.
"And remember - Dublin City Council, which gets a billion euros of your money, just seems to be obsessed about putting cycle tracks down on the city when theyâre unnecessary.
Itâs like a lot of modern life.
All theatre.
He has a point in fairness.
I suspect itâs about as far from a county boundary as you are likely to get in Dublin.
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He has a point.
Una Doolally has been drinking the Kool Aid again.
Why is Dublin being starved of outdoor dining spaces?
Una Mullally
The Dublin hospitality lockdown will be a brutal one for businesses, and thereâs only so many times politicians can pontificate about resilience before that rhetoric starts sounding very thin. The city has been floundering since the pandemic began, and we have to face up to the fact that the people who run the capital, mind-bogglingly, missed the summer.
Multiple outdoor spaces perfect for outdoor dining, for example, were left empty. The city could have been transformed had spaces such as Smithfieldâs public cobblestoned square, one of the most under-utilised spaces in the city, been used for outdoor dining.
Temple Bar, devoid of tourists when air travel collapsed, could have come back to life for locals. Much of it is pedestrianised anyway, so you can imagine the lanes, streets and squares being used as outdoor dining areas for its pubs, cafes and restaurants. Instead most of those venues are shut with little contingency for life after tourism. The area also includes a semi-covered public space, Meeting House Square. Dublin City Councilâs offices are literally at the edge of Temple Bar. Didnât anyone see this largely pedestrianised network of streets populated by independent businesses on their doorstep and wonder how it could be reclaimed for the pandemic-era city?
The fringes of our city parks, with their broad footpaths â Merrion Square, St Stephenâs Green, Fitzwilliam Square, Mountjoy Square â make for perfect public terraces. Again, tumbleweed. The area in front of the Custom House by the Liffey, all the way down to the East-Link Bridge, is beautifully paved and lit and could have been a riverside meeting place, eating place and reborn public space.
The IFSC has multiple wide pathways that could have been opened up for socially distanced, safe gatherings. Instead, an area with a high density of now mostly vacant offices just sat there while office workers stayed at home. Georgeâs Dock at the IFSC, which became the focus of the councilâs plans for a white-water rafting facility, used to host markets and cultural events. Oh well.
Likewise Grand Canal Dock didnât transform into a brilliant waterside, safe outdoor area for public dining, unless you count buying a sandwich from Spar and eating it while sitting on a nearby bench as an al fresco success. Although that said, life was breathed into that area throughout the summer thanks to the young men and women who use the area for diving and swimming, along with local skateboarders.Obvious solution
Floors and roofs of multistorey carparks, which offer a very obvious solution for indoor-outdoor dining â covered, spacious, ventilated â could have been used. Dublin could have taken the examples of Park in Lisbon, Klunkerkranich in Berlin, or the multiple car-park roof bars in London such as Skylight in Wapping and Frankâs in Peckham.
Instead, what the city got were cheesy tourist campaigns for day-trippers, and promises at the start of summer for pedestrianisation schemes, including, finally, the creation of a public plaza at College Green. Most of those plans seem to have dwindled or were poorly realised, and College Green still hasnât been pedestrianised.
There were some successes in the bicycle lane department. The cycle lanes on the north quays are great. But new public amenities are so scarce in Dublin that when 750m of cycle path in the north inner city was opened, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, and chief executive of the National Transport Authority Anne Graham turned up to cut the ribbon. Thatâs not to say the cycle pathway isnât great (it is very pleasant), but these are very small things. Itâs hard not to see average initiatives being trumpeted so loudly as being a bit pathetic.
Dubliners are so deprived of anything that feels novel, nice
or innovative that people were basically left applauding the few car-park spaces that have been taken over by restaurants for outdoor diners in the South William Street area. Yes, theyâre nice, but itâs also a minuscule outcome for the capital cityâs outdoor dining overall.
Instead of coming up with and implementing very obvious big ideas all summer long, on Thursday night after 10pm, the council posted on Twitter that in order for businesses to use street furniture, they must have public liability insurance of âŹ6.4 million in place. And on utilising car-park spaces for outdoor seating, âThe preference is for businesses to work together to make these interventions. The city council will provide support and expertise if requested.â
The message is clear: do it yourselves. Given how the council is always in enforcement mode and rarely in facilitation mode, perhaps itâs easier for businesses to just try and save themselves rather than looking to Wood Quay for help or inspiration.
Of course, there are many (although clearly not enough) smart and helpful people working in the council. But they donât appear to have the kind of scope or authority they â and the city â need. The perception of the council as dawdling, devoid of ideas and incapable of pursuing the kind of adaptable, smart and innovative ideas that get some life back into the city centre is evidenced by how little has actually come to pass. Now the summer is over. Winter is coming, and the economic and social chill will be fierce.
I ate and drank in that car park in Lisbon on a warm sunny February day. I donât think Iâd ate in Drury St car park though.
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I see the Czechs are fucked now after being hailed as best in class a few months ago.
Apparently the govt is to enlist the help of influencers now in a bid to curb the threat of the Coronavirus amongst young people who will not listen to government, media, CMO etc. The irony that seems to have been lost on the govt is that influencers lead a very active social life and may not be shining light or best use of tax monies.
What could go wrong .
Conor McGregor will not be found waiting in the countries hour of need
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but no more than 200m from the nearest Garda station. âPut the kettle on, ladsâ
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I saw Bressie pushing this over the weekend on Twitter. The powers that be must have been listening.
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In fairness his followers would be depressed off their heads and wouldnât leave their bedrooms anyway. Preaching to the converted.
Someone in govt is following him anyway. Weâre doomed if this is where our glorious leaders look for solutionsâŚ