Small Town Reporter

Harris active on Redford pollution

The issue regarding St Crispin's is one which I have been pursuing for some time along with my colleagues on the Redford Park Residents' Association.

Dirty Habits at St Crispin's Cell

Redford Park has as fine history attached to it: St Crispin’s Cell, which dates back to the 11^th century; and the ford of Red ford that once suppled the water for Greystones when the place was a roaring Victorian seaside resort.

Redford park is a pleasant place, neat and tidy with fine open space dotted with young trees. But there is one blot on its landscape that beggar’s belief.  

POLLUTION BY THE LAZY & STUPID

A decade ago there was mighty rumpus about the Cell and the leaders of the campaign succeeded in protecting the area from the rampant construction plans that assailed Greystones then. Fortunately, building in the area was thwarted after the case was made by environmentalists and archaeologists that we should preserve it.  Wicklow County Council came along later, patched up the church an put a couple of gates on it to keep out the bowsies who were depositing evidence of their alcoholic habits. (They have since taken up residence in the old farm ruin a the north edge of the field.)

Want a good reputation or a bad one?

There is a PR guy I know from the old days. He rides shotgun for companies. Used to be reporter. Not a very good one. Could not keep his eye on the ball. Always wanted more. You the know type. So, he gave up working for democracy and went into Public Relations. 

Cream sours in Greystones chamber

Fine Gael’s Simon Harris had his first bitter taste of small town politics on June 11, 2009. Shortly after 7:30 pm in the Greystones Council chamber the cream of his electoral success was soured by Independent councillor Chris Maloney (right)  who announced that he was forming an alliance with Fianna Fail and Labour members of the council. It will be conceived as Maloney pouring Harris’s chance of being Mayor of Greystones down the drain.

Kelleher survives in Town defeated in County

It was as impossible to imagine the defeat of Kathleen Kelleher as a county councillor as it was easy to accept that her fellow traveller Eleanor Roche would be defeated on Greystones Town Council. 

Few individuals in this town are so dedicated to work in the community. But the fact remains, the 2009 local electorate with a fickle sweep of its hand wiped her name off the agendas of a wide range of local government committees at county level. Her interest in planning and development is with a hawk’s eye for detail. 

After the Bubble

A bubble bursts and the world melts down. In the rush for the lifeboat everyone has a quick fix:  “It is the banks we must to sort out first.” Or “The government has lost control.”  It is election time, of course, but they have forgotten their history. Or more likely, few have read a book in their lives. The first big pop in the financial world occurred in 1720 was not caused by a cork from a champagne bottle. It was the South Sea Bubble and it smashed many.

Sewers, discontent and one sorry rat

Rats and politicians have a certain affinity it seems not so  far removed from our annual residents meeting in May.

Election Posters v. Real Politicians

The literature of election posters obliterates town and countryside at this time. Judgement day approaches for our local and european political leaders, old and would be. So many wonderful smiles, expectant, cool and sagacious, stare down upon the passing populace, beseeching it to trust them. They look like saints and some like scholars. How could you not vote for any of them?

"Give me your Number One", they cry.  Ah, to have the power of the electorate at such times can feel exhilarating. Even to have one skinny little vote like mine. So, how do you decide who is best for the job?

When a sledgehammer hits a Swiss watch?

They keep telling us the economy is returning to the austerities of that which came with World War II. We have to start accepting that there is truth in this and that as survivors we are all lucky to be alive. The time has come to take stock of what we have and to make the best of this. History never repeats itself as the saying goes, but it does spiral.

When greed turns to panic and the poor panic, too....

Greed is a great motivator, killer, winner and loser. Greed is a game, a disease, a way of life, a preoccupation with self and survival. Watching the greedy being confined and confronted by the law, brought down, run out of town, and reduced until they are left only with the things that they came into the world with is as entertaining and enthralling as any visceral Roman sport or Greek comedy/tragedy. We humans who watch and delight when a rogue is caught and punished are only human to do so. We are inhuman not to have compassion for those who fall as victims.