Hopefully. Vanilla it’s going to be called, I think.
What was that Club in Ranelagh again? That used to have an over 40’s night, some crack to pop in there some night when you were in college and pissed on Dutch Gold.
By Hugh Farrelly in today’s Indo. The knob doesn’t even put his name against it on the online version. COTY contender right here…
IRFU hostages to GAA-GAA thinking
SOMETIMES, it takes an outsider to scythe through the semantics and provide a proper perspective.
As we progress towards summer, the open-top buses are filling up with plenty of foreign visitors available to give their opinions on matters local. And, after the obligatory visit to Carroll’s Irish gift shop and a tour of the Guinness brewery (with the dubious option of a horse-and-carriage ride under the guidance of a John Player Blue-smoking, tracksuit-clad jarvey), it is possible to elicit the opinions of visitors on Irish sporting issues at diddily-eye joints around the city centre.
To an Aran-adorned man they are fascinated by hurling – waxing lyrical about the speed and skill levels in this country’s finest sport.
Gaelic football? Meh.
“How can you have a sport where there is no proper tackle and guys just play for fouls?” asked one bewildered American in O’Neill’s Irish pub recently, his bafflement only increasing when informed that the round-ball game is by far the more popular of the two Gaelic codes.
When the conversation turned to Croke Park and the fact that the country’s biggest stadium will no longer house Ireland’s premier international fixtures, the confusion levels multiplied, before swiftly switcing to scorn, culminating in a rueful shake of the head and a facial expression that screamed: “Crazy Irish.”
The redeveloped Lansdowne Road has its official opening at 3.0 this afternoon. The ‘wow factor’ will be considerable and tomorrow’s papers will be full of enthusiastic accounts and images of a state-of-the-art sporting facility. Yet, for all the eulogising, there will be an elephant in each expertly designed Lansdowne Road room today. Or, to be more exact, 30,000 of them.
Just in case you hadn’t heard, Irish rugby is moving from an 82,000-capacity stadium to one that houses 50-odd thousand and you do not have to be a defender of the oval code to feel sympathy for the Irish Rugby Football Union. The IRFU have made the very best of a bad situation.
In these pages on April 19, Vincent Hogan traced this journey to Destiny’s Pass in clear and concise fashion, a sorry story of political manoeuvring and vested interests that forced the hands of the IRFU and their FAI co-tenants. Hogan described how the GAA delayed the opening of Croke Park with “five years of hopeless inertia in which time the IRFU and FAI had to make their own arrangements”.
Then, after the success of rugby and soccer’s temporary tenancy in GAA headquarters, the association opened the stadium’s doors indefinitely at the interminable talk-shop they call Congress. Particularly galling as it emerged that future rents would be set at more manageable levels than the contract binding, over-inflated rate of approximately €1.25m that existed for the temporary arrangement.
“So, just as it (Lansdowne Road) gets a final clean, the very reason for building the stadium went up in a puff of smoke. It’s a bit like investing your life savings in a splendid house only to discover you’ve inherited an even bigger one,” noted Hogan.
Now it is time to look at what happens next.
For the first few months, things should sail along pretty serenely. A combined provinces exhibition rugby match at the end of July is followed by a League of Ireland XI versus Manchester United and Ireland v Argentina soccer friendlies in August. The first competitive date sees the Irish soccer team take on Andorra in a September European qualifier, followed by a night of Michael Buble crooning and then the soccer side’s second qualifier against Russia at the start of October.
None of those assignments should excite the capacity issue, the first fixture to do that will be the visit of the South African rugby team on November 6. Over 50,000 people will be in Lansdowne for this match – last November 74,950 paid to see Ireland beat the world champion Springboks 15-10 at Croke Park. You do the math (as our American friend might put it). Two weeks later, the All Blacks are in town, the side that attracted 77,500 customers to Croker for their visit in 2008.
There has been a huge increase in the numbers following Irish rugby over the past 10 years and a sizeable chunk of supporters are about to find themselves shut out. If that is enough to cause angry calls to Joe Duffy next November, it is nothing to the anger that will be unleashed when England and France come calling in next year’s Six Nations.
Public discontent attracts media attention and foreign journalists will not be overly concerned with the details when they pass judgment. Rugby will bear the brunt due to the Irish soccer team’s unglamorous Euro qualifying pool and it is a public relations disaster waiting to happen.
Insurance giants Aviva have ploughed an estimated E45m into the redevelopment but have already attracted negative publicity due to the imposition of the ‘Aviva Stadium’ title instead of its old Lansdowne Road moniker. With such financial commitment, Aviva understandably want their name inextricably linked with the stadium and are equally adamant they will pull the plug if any attempts are made to move internationals back to Croke Park.
But, when public opinion rails against the capacity issue, Aviva are going to take a PR pummelling. The sensible solution is to switch the bigger games back to Croker, but that is further complicated by details such as fixed catering and security contracts.
This is an issue that will not go away and it is unfortunate that the IRFU will cop their share of flak, for they were pro-active when the GAA told them Croke Park was not a long -term option and have overseen the construction of a hugely impressive home for Irish rugby.
The blame lies elsewhere but that will not help when the abuse rains down. Defences will be mounted, positives accentuated and mitigating details outlined but, all the while, our international visitors will merely shake their heads, snigger and think: “Crazy Irish.”
It really irks me when journalist quote “an american tourist” they are always at it.
That tool John O’Shea from Goal was on the radio one night and tried something similar. He said “I was with some american tourists today watching the game, and one of them commented why is it called football when all they do is hand pass the ball”?
In fairness though he was pulled up on it when one of the guests responded “You mean like American Football”. :lol:
[quote=“Phil Leotardo, post: 451323”]Gaelic football? Meh.
[/quote]
+1
thank God its all but dead
The IRFU were always going to build a new stadium. They had to redevelop or sell Lansdowne and if they sold it they’d have built a stadium with the money. They didn’t want to do that so they built their own one.
No issue here except Hubert looking to find a story out of nothing. That American tourist thing wrecks my head too. Who gives a shit what some lad who knows nothing about the sports thinks? Talk about an inferiority complex.
This fella is an idiot, i know from personal experience. Wasn’t liked down here from his Dolphin days, and wrote some muck on the Examiner as well. Why he’d go to the Indo instead makes no sense to me.
Some lads go nuts for the external validation. You hear the same knobs going on about how Americans love hurling. What’s infinitely worse is the type who having lived abroad for a year or two thinks foreign perspective on everything that’s ever happened is an interesting source of conversation. Invariably the character in question is a social retard who has decided their ineptitude is the fault of the nation and not themselves. Abroad, where they presumably felt better about themselves, everything was so much better.
If you’re going to have a pop at KIB Man then just come out and say it
Exactly what popped into my head.
yeah decent point-i remember when I lived in oz they had a term called tall poppy syndrome which is slightly similar to what you are talking about- i wonder do they have a term for what you are talking about?
Being a cunt
[quote=“Watch The Break, post: 451329”]
Some lads go nuts for the external validation. You hear the same knobs going on about how Americans love hurling. What’s infinitely worse is the type who having lived abroad for a year or two thinks foreign perspective on everything that’s ever happened is an interesting source of conversation. Invariably the character in question is a social retard who has decided their ineptitude is the fault of the nation and not themselves. Abroad, where they presumably felt better about themselves, everything was so much better.[/quote]
sums me up TBH
It’s such a paradox. If you hear the song “It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home” it makes you think there’s no place like Ireland. Then you hear the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” and you change your mind. I still haven’t come to terms with how to reconcile those statements and it unsettles me, to be honest. All that grass is confusing me.
Surely if you were away, the ‘green, green grass of home’ would refer to Ireland, while the grass on the other side which is greener would also refer to Ireland. I don’t see a problem. Get it together sid.
You’re twisting my statement to suit your own ends based on a confusing locational analysis and it’s making me dizzy.
Got me dem ole Brittas Bay blues, writes ISABEL MORTON
THERE was a time when, if you didn’t know any better and you heard someone casually mention that they were “nipping down to Brittas to the van” you mightn’t have understood to what they were referring.
Images might have sprung to mind of dodging cowpats and scrambling over fences to get to the beach, eating cold baked beans from the tin and spreading hand-rinsed clothes out to dry on gorse bushes.
But those in the know could immediately read between the lines. The term “nipping” was used to emphasise how short the journey was from the more salubrious areas of south Co Dublin.
The loose mention of the general area of “Brittas” in fact specifically referred to either Jack’s Hole or Ballinacarrig, Ireland’s most exclusive and sought-after holiday resorts, where rent and service charge fees are close to €10,000 a year. And the derisory term “van” was used to make sure everyone knew that, despite the fact that they might have paid up to a quarter of a million euro for their mobile home, it was all worth it, as it provided their children with a good “old fashioned” family beach holiday in Ireland, regardless of the weather.
After all, it was, as one owner told me, “an investment in the children’s future in the sense of providing them with great childhood memories”.
Conveniently, it was also an astute financial investment at one time, as the cost of buying into Jack’s Hole and Ballinacarrig holiday parks rocketed during the boom.
They may have been the most expensive mobile homes in Ireland, if not in the world, but Jack’s Hole and Ballinacarrig were the only two locations where the upwardly mobile set would have considered buying.
Ideally situated beside sandy beaches, less than an hour from Dublin, the facilities, security and entertainment provided by these “members’ only” holiday parks provide nice families with an opportunity to meet other, equally nice families, in a relaxed environment.
Glamorous young mothers were known to buy designer “casuals” for the Brittas season and many wore high heels and full make-up with bikinis on the beach. It was the place to see and be seen, make social and business contacts and ensure that your children were best friends with children from all the “right” families.
Comfortable patterns were quickly established, where wives would up sticks and move to Brittas Bay for the summer season, while husbands would work in the city during the week and invariably joined their families at the weekend. It suited everyone at the time. But times have changed.
Prices of these holiday homes have now halved in line with property valuations nationwide. But while there will always be a market, however small, for primary residences, it appears there may no longer be a market for Irish holiday homes for the foreseeable future.
Most mobile homes are sold via direct enquiries to the holiday parks but Stephen Clarke of Clarke’s Auctioneers, Ashford, Co Wicklow have six for sale.
Prices range from €40,000 for a mobile in Ballinacarrig which would need to be renovated or replaced (new vans cost about €60,000-€80,000) to one of the larger mobile homes in perfect condition and enjoying the benefit of frontline sea views in Jack’s Hole, which has a price tag of €140,000. The average asking price in the area is now €95,000.
While Clarke said there had been a lot of interest and he had arranged a number of viewings, he admitted he has not yet sold any mobile homes this year and expressed concern about the likelihood of selling any now, as the summer season is due to get going in a fortnight’s time.
In addition, the 176 owners of mobile homes in Ballinacarrig Holiday Park are in dispute with the owner of their holiday complex over the proposed 15 per cent increase in rent (for the individual mobile home sites) and service charges.
One Ballinacarrig owner who bought at the top of the market says, “we’ve just had to accept that although we’ve enjoyed the last few years having barbecues on the beach with the children, our mobile home in now worth little or nothing, as there are at least 20 for sale in Ballinacarrig at the moment, with no sign of any buyers”.
She said many of those who bought during the boom are now in negative equity and unable to sell at any price. Owners are also bound by the rules of the holiday parks and are not permitted to let their mobile homes, although some were able to get around that rule by “lending” to friends.
The party days may be over and the Brittas balloon may have burst but for those children who enjoyed the sand dunes (now dramatically eroded), the friendships and the freedom, their memories will always be of long sunny days.
not really woeful journalism but I can’t seem to find a meaning for the highlighted word below:
18/06/2010 - 07:05:49
BP boss Tony Hayward has received a marathon grilling from US politicians who angrily accused him of evading their questions over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
During a six-hour interrogation, the chief executive faced coruscating criticism from members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.
The embattled business leader looked drained as a string of politicians accused him of “stone-walling”, giving memorised statements and “insulting our intelligence”.
The only reference I found to it seemed to indicate it meant dazzling, glittering, sparkling etc, but from the context of the sentence I was expecting it to mean scathing or similar.
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/property-plus/going-going-gone-2253377.html
[b]Going, going, gone!
Saturday July 10 2010[/b]
As the sun sets on another golden summer’s day, all is as it should be in the south Dublin suburb of Mount Merrion. In the lingering rays, plump cats bask territorially at the gates of neat family homes. The local park peals with the shrieks of children enjoying their new-found freedom from school.
Well-kept cars pull into driveways, and before long, the familiar smells of home-cooked dinners waft through the tree-lined streets.
Amid this maze of hilly avenues, dramatic views appear at every turn: the sweeping curve of the Dublin mountains, the shimmering roof of the new stadium at Lansdowne, and then a sight which has become almost extinct since the worst recession in modern times crushed Ireland’s economy.
It’s an estate agent’s sign bearing the word ‘sold’ on its timber frame. Take a right and you see another, then a left and it’s ‘sale agreed’. Before you know it, you’ve counted a smattering.
Here in the heart of one of the capital’s oldest residential suburbs, a middle class enclave of modest semi-d’s, they’re almost afraid to say it – but a mini-property boom seems to be cooking.
In a market still impossibly tough to call, would-be sellers willing to take a gamble and put their homes on the market are finding queues of eager buyers outside their doors on Saturday mornings.
Telephones in neighbourhood estate agents are ringing with surprising regularity, leaving some offices with no choice but to hire new staff.
Even that distant Celtic Tiger concept of the bidding war is back in fashion.
"We have a bit of a joke going in the office at the moment in that we’re having the dust down the ‘sold’ signs for a change, says Robert Lawson, a local estate agent with Lisneys. "In this small pocket of south Dublin, we’ve sold six houses in the last few months and typically we’re seeing at least three people bidding on each. If you compare this year to last, the first quarter of 2009 was just diabolical. It didn’t matter what you were quoting, you just couldn’t sell properties. The market was dead. But confidence is coming back.
“All of a sudden, there’s been a burst of activity and it’s taking just four to six weeks to agree sales in the €500,000 bracket. You can’t deny the presence of ‘sold’ signs in certain suburbs.”
Yet it’s unlikely this trickle of faith in the housing market is about to turn into a stream.
As the real impact of the credit crunch continues to unravel, recent figures show that house prices in Ireland continue to fall faster than anywhere else in the world, with prices nationwide declining by 42.9pc since the peak of 2006, back to where they were in 2002.
But a new survey by MyHome.ie reveals a compelling trend in the demand for three-bedroom houses, which for the first time since the crash of 2008 appears to be stabilising. In a remarkable twist of expectations, prices are even starting to creep up, albeit marginally, by 0.5pc for three-bed semis and 0.4pc for three-bed terraced. The study also found that Dublin prices appear close to bottoming out.
Market analyst Paul O’Connor has observed this budding trend with fascination. From his number-crunching firm, Propertyweek.ie, he devotes his days to counting how many properties go under the hammer every week and for how much.
In the first six months of 2010, there was a 65pc increase in the number of ‘sale agreeds’ in all Dublin postcode districts on the same period last year. From January to June of this year, out of a stock of about 5,000 properties on the market in Dublin city, 1,852 found buyers, compared with 1,118 during the first half of 2009.
It’s still a long way to go from the overheated days of 2006, when about 5,000 Dublin homes would have sold during the first six months of that year, but it does suggest a change on the horizon.
“What is very interesting is that the vast majority of sales this year in Dublin are houses, with only 220 apartments achieving ‘sale agreed’ status out of the total 1,852 properties,” says O’Connor.
"Apartment prices are wildly overvalued, by about 25pc, but houses are coming back to what the market dictates. I get the impression from our data that the first-time buyer has upgraded their target. They now look at nice, small houses rather than apartments.
"There is no property ladder any more. People want homes they can live in rather than investments. They’re thinking if they’re going to have a mortgage around their necks they want to have it on a house they can live in to a ripe old age. That’s why these well-established suburbs close to the city centre with good amenities and public transport are doing well.
“You might get the impression that there is a bit of a rush but the reality is it’s still a slow buyers’ market. Only one in five of all Dublin properties that came on the market in January is sale-agreed after six months. But there is no doubt that in certain established residential suburbs, they are starting to move quicker.”
So who are these intrepid buyers dipping their toes into the waters of the stagnant property market?
“Typically,” says Lawson, "they are first-time buyers who have been sitting tight for a couple of years but believe the time is right to buy themselves a proper family home. They’ve been renting long enough and have decided they want a place of their own.
"In the last six months, we’ve also seen a lot of young Dubliners who are able to buy back into the places they grew up in like Churchtown and Dundrum, who up to now had to move out to places like Celbridge and Lucan.
"I don’t think they are making any great call on where the market is going or not. It’s just that prices are now in their bracket and they can afford to buy them. In some cases, they are down by about 50pc.
“These buyers want to put down roots so if prices fall another few percent, they think ‘so what?’”
Several miles north in the suburb of Rathfarnham, property agent Justin Kinsella of Justin Kinsella & Associates tells a similar story.
"I sold a property in Mount Merrion recently. At the height of the market, it would have been valued at €1.1m – €1.2m. We listed at €640,000. A lot of people looking at those houses were trading up from nearby suburbs like Leopardstown and Ballinteer. To make that move five years ago wasn’t possible but the cost today is a lot more affordable. They are looking at a 50pc reduction so they see real value there.
"Up to now, many first-time buyers have been priced out of the market. A lot of them are back because those houses are within reach again. There is a feeling that the market has near enough reached the bottom.
"We’re actually seeing familiar faces who postponed the purchase decision 18 months ago but are getting off the fence now. These are people who have been in apartments, have kids now and need more space.
"They grew up in places like Terenure and Dundrum. A lot of their older sisters and brothers were forced to move out to places like Navan and Naas and Carlow and have been commuting. But this generation want to buy as close to home as they can and now they are able to.
“But it’s still only certain professions that are purchasing. The banks seem happy to do business with the old reliables at the moment – the public servants whose jobs are secure – but availability of mortgage finance is definitely still a barrier unless you’re a guard, nurse or school teacher.”
At Savills estate agents, business in the capital is on the up too.
“They’re not queuing out the door but in the established traditional residential areas like Clontarf and Blackrock, any modest house we have up for sale goes in a matter of weeks,” says Ronan O’Driscoll, head of Residential.
"Last year, people were like lamped rabbits. They were terrified to move. Now there is a feeling that the worst of the upheaval has passed and they are fed up waiting. Buyers see that prices have fallen by anything from 35pc to 50pc and they think this is starting to look like reasonable value.
“They also know they have a better chance of buying their dream home now because there are fewer people competing with them for it.”