MONOPOLY Game goes global on-line

A massive multi-player on-line version of the popular property board game MONOPOLY has been launched today.

Monopoly City Streets has been developed by Hasbro, the US toy and games manufacturer who produces the conventional board version of MONOPOLY (as well as other games) here in Waterford, Ireland's oldest city.

The free on-line game uses Google Maps or the open source Open Street Map as its playing board.

Hasbro says that it will be "the biggest game of Monopoly of all times" and will allow players to purchase "almost any street in the world".

The goal of the game, like in the conventional board version, is to earn money on property and become the richest person playing.

New players will receive three million Monopoly-Dollars when they start, and then they are free to build their virtual empire. In theory, every street in the world is available for purchase.

Once a player has taken control of a street, he is - like in the board game version - able to charge rent and build new virtual properties. Streets can also be sold or traded with other players.

In a change to the original board game, Hasbro has introduced new chance cards for the on-line version.
They will allow players to "sabotage" neighbouring rivals by building rubbish dumps, prisons or wind farms on their property, in order to reduce the rent value of their neighbours.
Players can only remove a hazard by bulldozing it off their property, again through the use of chance cards.

The on-line game, which was started today, will run for a little under five months and close on January 31st, 2010.

In case you are interested to become a player, I hope you have some patience.
As it could be expected, the first few hours after the launch have been frantic and - as also could be expected - the system's servers went down very soon, being overwhelmed by the interest of people from all around the world who want to sign up and play.

Most people who went to the official website of the game - www.monopolycitystreets.com - today received the following message:

We anticipated an opening rush when we launched the Monopoly City Streets online game, but the first few hours have surpassed even our greatest expectations.
The registration is slow due to the overwhelming response. Our servers are on fire! Thanks for everyone’s interest and patience - please keep trying.
We are in the process of increasing our firepower and expect to be running more smoothly within the next several hours.
Thanks for your patience as we work as fast as we can to resolve this and get everyone playing and trading on Monopoly City Streets.

Personally I would have neither the time for such a massive game, nor am I a particular fan of MONOPOLY. But if you are and want to join in, I wish you the best of luck!

The Emerald Islander

TEVA is cutting 315 jobs in Waterford

Workers at one of the biggest pharmaceutical factories in Waterford have been told today that 315 of the currently 730 jobs at the plant will be cut within the next 12 months.

TEVA (photo), which is now owned by an Israeli financial consortium and was formally known under the name IVAX, is located at the IDA Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Waterford and manufactures inhalers and tablets.

In a surprise meeting, which had been announced only yesterday evening, the workers and their trade union representatives were informed this morning by the company's management that the tablet production at the factory will cease within 12 months. A part of the manufacturing process will be transferred from Waterford to a factory in Hungary, where wages are about a quarter of current Irish payment levels.

The announced redundancies will be a mixture of voluntary and compulsory, but details of packages have not yet been released.

More Jobs in Danger

Speaking about the job losses, Matt Moran of PharmaChemical Ireland, an umbrella body for the pharmaceutical industry in this country, stated that between 500 and 1000 similar jobs could be "vulnerable".

He said that the cost base for manufacturers in Ireland has risen, and that producing generic pharmaceuticals which are off patent is very susceptible to competitive pressure.

The manufacturing of generic pharmaceuticals represents between 5% and 10 % of the sector's production in Ireland.

Elsewhere, the multinational eye-care company Bausch & Lomb has announced that 500 jobs are to go at its facility in Livingston in Scotland, a move which may help safeguard the remaining 1100 Bausch & Lomb jobs in Waterford.

The company said that as part of a restructuring process, approximately 30 new positions will be created in Rochester in the USA during 2010, but there will be no employment increase in Waterford.

Ireland relies too much on foreign Companies

Once again, many Irish jobs that people might have considered as safe not so long ago are to be lost or potentially in danger. And once again they all are in foreign-owned companies.

Readers of this weblog will be well aware that I am no simple-minded nationalist who praises everything Irish and is suspicious of foreigners. In fact, I am quite an internationalist myself. But I am nevertheless of the opinion that we do have too many Irish jobs that depend on foreign money and investment.
For decades the IDA has always been looking for the big money from abroad, predominantly from the USA. Many US multi-national companies have come to Ireland and employed many Irish people. But a lot of them closed again and left Ireland after a few years, usually when their preferential tax regime ran out. Others have just disappeared without trace, and some others (like DELL in Limerick, and now TEVA in Waterford) are moving a large part of their production to low-wage countries.

Had the IDA spent the vast sums of money it threw - and still throws - at US and other foreign companies on the development of an indigenous Irish industry, we all would be a lot better off.
It is well-known that - especially during a recession - the vast majority of companies will rather cut their workforce abroad, while protecting jobs in their country of origin.

We need a new approach and a complete overhaul of the Irish economy, with much more industries owned and controlled by Irish businessmen and investors. Only then will we be able to create a new stability.
As things are at present in Ireland - and have been for many decades - our economy is neither developed nor independent. The large percentage of foreign-owned companies creates actually a situation of limited economic sovereignty, which has a direct negative influence also on our national (political) sovereignty.

And this time we cannot blame the Irish situation on foreign invaders like the Normans or the English. The mess we are in is of our own making, created over decades by a succession of Irish governments and state agencies like the IDA, who care more for foreign investments than for our own nation's status, competitiveness and stability.

Only a complete change of attitude, combined with serious investment of Irish money in Irish industries, can change our economy for the better.

The Emerald Islander

More Jobs Cuts in Waterford and Co. Mayo

It has become known this evening that 200 jobs will soon be lost in two different companies, one based in Waterford, and the other in Co. Mayo.

The US-owned multi-national eye care products manufacturer Bausch & Lomb is expected to announce tomorrow morning that 120 people are to be made redundant at its large plant in Waterford (photo), where it is one of the main employers.

This will bring the workforce at the factory to below 1100, nearly 700 people less than were employed there a few years ago.
While I am writing this, talks are continuing tonight at the factory between trade unions and management representatives.

The company has already shed 195 (of its then 1400) jobs - mostly on a 'voluntary' basis - in March of this year. (see my entry of March 4th)

Meanwhile in Co. Mayo, Eurotel Marketing Ltd. has said that 80 workers will lose their jobs with the closure of a major call centre in Belmullet.

More Jobs to be lost in Waterford

More industrial jobs will soon be lost in Waterford City.

The workers at the well-known and long-established Waterford factory of the international electrical components company ABB learned this morning that the plant will be closed at the end of March 2010, with the loss of all 178 jobs.

The company, which manufactures distribution transformers for the construction and utility markets in Ireland and the UK, says that it is closing "because of significantly lower orders and lack of potential business".

ABB (Asia-Brown-Boveri) is a well-known and stable European firm, owned mainly by Swiss and Swedish investors.
At five different locations in Ireland the company employs currently more than 400 people.

The Waterford factory, which has been in operation since 1951, has always been seen as a key element to ABB's Irish business. With its closure next Spring, the long-term presence of the firm in Ireland looks doubtful.

It is quite likely that in the current world-wide recession the management will concentrate their efforts on their main countries of interest, which are Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.

The Emerald Islander

What is the Price of a Woman's Virtue?

Yesterday evening a jury at the High Court in Dublin has made legal history by awarding the by far highest ever amount of damages to a litigant in a libel case in Ireland.

Monica Leech (left), a prominent communications consultant from Waterford, won her long-running libel action against Tony O'Reilly's Independent Newspapers (the country's largest media group) and was awarded a record € 1.87 million in damages.

She successfully claimed that the Evening Herald, which is Dublin's last afternoon newspaper and owned by the Independent group, had published false allegations that she got public contracts as a PR consultant because she was having an extra-marital affair with Waterford Fianna Fáil-TD Martin Cullen (right), who was at the time junior minister in charge of the Office of Public Works (OPW) and then promoted to cabinet rank as the Minister for the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.

Independent Newspapers had denied libel and Judge Eamon de Valera (a namesake and also a relative of the late President and Taoiseach) had said he would accept an unanimous verdict. A jury of seven women and five men began its deliberations just before 2 pm yesterday afternoon and delivered the surprise verdict in the evening.

After the verdict was announced in court, Monica Leech said that justice had been done. She was "delighted" and had been "vindicated".
It is no surprise that Independent Newspapers did not share her view. A rather shocked looking lawyer for the media group said that they would be appealing to the Supreme Court.

Which means that the matter - which has already created legal costs in the area of € 500,000 - will drag on for many more months and cost most likely another € 100,000 before the Supreme Court makes a decision.
Going by legal practice and past experience, it is most likely that the Supreme Court will rule the award as 'too high' and refer the case back to the High Court, where the whole procedure will then have to be repeated.
And since under existing Irish law juries cannot be told how much damages they can award, the result could again be quite a surprise for lawyers and participants in the case.

Leaving the facts, details and merits of this case aside for a moment, it is an excellent example for the sad fact that the legal system in Ireland (like in other countries using the Anglo-Saxon case law) exists predominantly for the benefit and large secure incomes of the legal professionals who run it.
Plaintiffs and defendants are never more than statists, uninitiated extras in an elaborate stage play they do not really understand, but whose production costs they have to pay, no matter what.

Looking at the case itself, there is meanwhile so much of it that it would easily fill a book. Five years ago, when the forceful Mrs. Leech worked for Minister Martin Cullen, many people saw a bit more in that than just a normal working relationship between consultant and client.
And the way things go, people gossiped, someone had a suspicion, and that led to a rumour.
After a while the always news-hungry reporters from the tabloid papers got hold of it, and when they had nothing better to write about, they created and printed the story of 'Monica and the Minister'. Without checking the facts or digging deeper, a few more serious media outlets joined in and re-printed the story.

By the time it reached Waterford and the desk of Monica Leech, it was too late. The damage was done, and for quite some time it was an open whisper that she had an affair with Martin Cullen.
I heard it myself, and it made even me - a man with no interest whatsoever in people's private lives - think.

Now, I do have the benefit of knowing both individuals personally. On the basis of that I think it is very unlikely that Monica Leech would have an affair with Martin Cullen. (In fact, it is hard to imagine Martin Cullen, a short and meagre-looking Fianna Fáil weasel with little personality or leadership qualities, in intimate company of any woman at all... But then again, since even the greyest of all grey politicians - John Major - managed to have an affair, one can never be entirely certain.)

No-one really knows if the media story did damage Monica's career or reputation, but she went for every single paper and medium that helped spreading it like an avenging angel, the flaming sword in hand. In separate cases she sued the Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, the Irish Mail (& Mail on Sunday) and RTÉ.
The latter two settled their cases out of Court and paid her sizeable amounts of compensation, but Tony O'Reilly and his Independent Group decided to fight the case.

Now they have the largest libel judgement in the history of the state against them. And even if - as expected - the Supreme Court should reduce the amount, it will still be a hefty sum.

Which brings me to the question of the compensation. € 1.87 million is a very large amount of money, even for a fairly well-to-do woman like Monica Leech. If she wanted, she could retire on such a sum and live happily and comfortably on the interest from it.

The jury obviously thought her worth of it, but does it really reflect the 'injury' or 'damage' done to her by the media?
If this had been a personal injury case, she would have to be at least paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life to receive a compensation award of that magnitude.

But she is not. She is in fact a very fit and agile 49-year-old, brimming with ideas and energy. So what is the huge amount of money compensating her for? She never struck me as particularly vulnerable or fragile. Quite the opposite. She is a strong and forceful woman, and never anyone's fool. In recent years - after the rumours about her and Martin Cullen appeared - she was chief executive of the Waterford Chamber of Commerce, and thus I saw quite a lot of her.
It never occurred to me that she could be hurt or insulted easily.

Yet this is exactly what she claimed in Court now several times, and so far always successfully. I presume the really crucial point is that the sloppy reporters did not do their homework. They had no proof for their allegations, which is simply bad journalism and deserves to be punished. But is € 1.87 million the right kind of punishment for them? After all, it is not the journalists who wrote the story who pay. Their publisher is sued and has to pay up.

Some people have suggested that the money awarded to Monica Leech is compensation for the damage done to her reputation as a 'woman of virtue'. Since she is married and mother of two children, I can understand this to a certain extend.
But does this mean that the virtue of every woman in Ireland is worth € 1.87 million? If so, we will soon have a rather large number of female millionaires in the country. And if not, what is the cash value of a woman's virtue?

Does it depend on her age, her education, her looks or her achievements? If the virtue of Monica Leech's is worth € 1.87 million, what would be the sum awarded in compensation for the same libellous action to a female cabinet minister, Supreme Court Judge, or - for argument's sake - the President?

I am of course no lawyer, but I think this case is asking more questions than it has answered. In my humble opinion Ireland is in need of a serious and wide-ranging legal reform. And one of the areas for which we need a more clearly defined law is certainly the complex of slander, libel and deformation.
On the European continent, where civil as well as criminal law is codified and applied a lot more fairly, these matters are defined in every detail and the amounts of available compensation are also set out in law. No jury has the leeway to do what they want, and no 'surprises' are sprung on litigants or judges.

Ever since Labour-TD Mervyn Taylor became Minister for Justice in the 'Rainbow Coalition', the Department of Justice carries the annex 'and Law Reform'. However, this has so far not produced any significant changes to the arcane and class-based legal system the English left us with when they moved out of 26 of our counties in 1922.

We are supposed to deal with the problems of the 21st century, but in order to do it, we still use a legal system created in the 17th and 18th century, and slightly amended in the 19th and early 20th century. So when it comes to the Law, we are literally stuck in a time warp.

The sooner we solve this problem, the sooner we will have a more realistic and more functional legal system. In the meantime Monica Leech can enjoy her sudden windfall, while Tony O'Reilly is probably kicking himself and someone in the office of Independent Newspapers is trying to work out how they can recoup nearly two million Euros from the subscribers and readers of their papers.

The Emerald Islander

Galway Maritime Festival attracts large Crowds

About 150,000 people from all over Ireland and from abroad have come to Galway for this long weekend to attend the city's two-week-long maritime festival, which is organised to celebrate the stop-over of the 2008/2009 Volvo Ocean Race (see my entry of May 24th).

According to experts, the Volvo Ocean Race is 'the 6th-biggest sporting event in the world', and the fastest and most expensive sailing boats ever built are taking part in the 37,000 mile round-the-globe challenge.

The Garda Síochána appeals to motorists travelling west to allow themselves "considerable additional time for their journeys", as long tail-backs are expected on the roads to Galway.

Fáilte Ireland, our usually quite useless tourist board, says that it now believes the additional income from the festival will far exceed the € 43 million it had originally predicted.

Attendance figures will set new records for a maritime event in the West of Ireland, but they will not reach the numbers Waterford has seen four years ago, when we hosted the start of the 2005 International Tall Ships' Race. In only four days, during which we had 88 sailing vessels in port - including 28 famous class A ships (which are at least 40 metres long, but many are a lot larger) - Waterford registered more than 450,000 visitors to the city (which has only about 60,000 inhabitants).

In two years' time - in early June of 2011 - we will host the same event again and I am looking forward to it already in great and happy anticipation.

The Emerald Islander

Jacob's end Production in Ireland

Jacob's, Ireland's famous manufacturers of biscuits, crackers and wafers (and one of the oldest and best-known brand names on this island), have baked the last biscuits at their factory in Tallaght, County Dublin yesterday afternoon.

As Tallaght was the company's last manufacturing facility in the Republic of Ireland, this means the end of production of our favourite biscuits in our own country.

The closure of the plant, which had started production in the 1970s, had been already announced in September 2008, and a gradual wind-down process of production took place since then. However, the closure means that another 220 jobs are lost in Dublin, and in the harsh recession we are in, that hurts.
Jacob's sales, marketing and administration departments, which together still employ about 100 people, will remain in Tallaght, at least for the time being.

The 15 popular brand lines of the company (most of which are market leaders) will from now on be manufactured in several plants in Britain and on the European continent, where - according the company's chairman Michael Carey - "the production is more efficient and less costly".

In modern business language this is called 'outsourcing'.

The Jacob's plant at Belgard Road in Tallaght had been working with only 16% of its full capacity for years, and in times of recession this is a situation few companies would or could maintain.

Even though Jacob's have been in Dublin for more than a century, the company was not founded in the capital. Like so many good and important things in Ireland, Jacob's biscuits came originally from the Emerald Isle's oldest city - Waterford.

In 1881 two brothers - William and Richard Jacob - opened a small biscuit bakery here in Bridge Street, close to the river Suir (and leading onto the city's only bridge).

They did very well, and soon their products became popular all over Ireland.
As the business began to grow and expand, W & R Jacob moved to larger premises on Dublin's Bishop Street (left), a site now occupied by the National Archive of Ireland. The brothers also had another Dublin factory in Peter's Row and later opened an English branch in Liverpool as well.

In 1916 the Bishop Street factory was one of several prominent Dublin buildings occupied by members of the Irish Citizens Army during the Easter Rising.

In the 1920s the company's two branches separated, with the Dublin branch retaining the W & R Jacob name, while the Liverpool branch was renamed Jacob's Bakery Ltd.
In the 1970s W & R Jacob merged with Boland's Biscuits to form Irish Biscuits Ltd. and moved to Tallaght, into the then new manufacturing plant that has produced its last biscuits yesterday.

Since 1990, when the company was bought by the French food giant Groupe Danone, Jacob's is strictly speaking no longer an Irish company. After several changes, the English branch is now part of the multi-national United Biscuits, while the Dublin branch was acquired a few years ago by the Fruitfield Food Group, which then changed its name to Jacob Fruitfield Food Group.

Jacob's biscuits are very popular here, and an almost essential part of every Irish childhood and growing-up process. And even as an adult I still like them very much. In fact, while I am writing this, I have two of Jacob's famous fig rolls sitting beside my mug of tea.

I presume that we will see Jacob's products on the shelves of our shops and supermarkets in the future, as we have seen them for all our lives. But I wonder if we will from now on have the same sentimental feelings that we always had when buying them.
Although we knew perfectly well that they were made in Dublin and Tallaght, for us they were somehow still 'our own' Waterford biscuits from Bridge Street.
Now they are not even made in Ireland any longer, and it is sad to see a great manufacturing tradition end after 128 years.

The Emerald Islander

Tánaiste ambushed by Waterford Protesters

The Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Mary Coughlan (photo), who is also Minister in charge of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, was visiting Waterford this afternoon to attend a business conference in a city centre hotel.
But when she arrived, she was confronted by a large group of local protesters, most of them former Waterford Crystal workers.

After some pathetic attempts to ignore the angry crowd, Coughlan agreed eventually - and reluctantly - to meet a delegation of the workers and listen to what they had to say. This meeting took place after she had attended the business conference.

Hours before Coughlan arrived in Waterford, around 70 former employees of Waterford Crystal and their supporters from the UNITE trade union had gathered outside the hotel in the centre of the city to protest against their loss of pensions and the non-payment of redundancy monies for workers of the once world-renowned flagship business.

At first the Tánaiste pretended not to notice the protest. She entered the hotel by the back door and went straight to the conference she had come to attend. But by that time a group of former Waterford Crystal workers had made their way into to hotel's foyer and thus could no longer be ignored or overlooked.

Later, after frantic mobile phone calls had been made and whispers were exchanged between the minister's assistant and hotel staff, Mary Coughlan agreed to meet a delegation of the protesters in a room upstairs.

The former Waterford Crystal employees had by this time brought their protest inside the hotel and refused to leave until their delegation had met with the Tánaiste. So she did not have much of a choice, really.
She listened to the workers, did not promise anything, did not say much, and what she said did not make much sense. But that's just Mary Coughlan, so no-one should be surprised (and no-one in Waterford was).

After the forced meeting with reality a flustered woman looking like Mary Coughlan left the hotel - again via the back door - and rushed back to Dublin in her large chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

The protestors, who were still assembled outside the hotel (and some inside the foyer) were then addressed by trade union representatives and informed about the meeting with the Tánaiste. There were some mutterings, and clear signs of disappointment, but then the group dispersed peacefully. Some went straight home to their anxious families, while a few others were drowning their sorrows in nearby pubs.

As things are, there is little hope for the now empty shell of Waterford Crystal, and even less hope for the hundreds of workers who gave many years of service to the company and are now left with nothing.
It also says quite a lot about the state of a country and its government when the Deputy Prime Minister can no longer enter a prominent hotel through the front entrance and has to sneak in and out by the back door instead.

The Emerald Islander

Another Taxi Drivers' Protest in Waterford

Motorists in Waterford City experienced severe traffic disruption today as most of the local taxi drivers took part in a work stoppage, organised in protest over the number of taxi licences being issued.

Taxi drivers carried out a 'go-slow' along the city's quays and across the Rice Bridge from 12 o'clock noon until 3 pm this afternoon.

Members of the Waterford Taxi Drivers' Association say that "the market is swamped, due to endless licences being issued".
Some of the local drivers with many years of service expressed special anger over "a strange group of newcomers", which includes "a significant number of Africans with no roots in the community".

It appears that "Nigerians based in England" acquired Irish taxi licences and now operate taxis in various parts of Ireland - including Waterford - with "other African drivers they bring into the country as they please".

The main anger of the drivers is however directed against the Dublin-based 'Commission for Taxi Regulation', a useless 'Quango' established by Bertie Ahern, and against the current Minister for Transport, Fianna Fáil's Noel Dempsey.

The Emerald Islander

Bausch & Lomb seeks 195 Redundancies

Trade union representatives at Bausch & Lomb (photo) in Waterford have been told that the company seeks 195 redundancies, if possible on a voluntary basis.
Negotiations over severance packages will take place in the coming weeks.

The US-owned multinational company, which makes eye care products, employs currently 1400 people at its Waterford factory and is one of the main employers in Ireland's oldest city.

Despite the redundancies, the company has said it is "committed to continuing manufacturing in Waterford".

Most of the staff are currently working three weeks out of every four as part of short-time working arrangements.

Severe Winter Storms killed at least 15 People

Fierce storms across southern France and northern Spain have left at least 15 people dead and caused huge damage and disruption during the past 24 hours.

Four children have died when strong winds blew off the roof of a sports centre near the city of Barcelona in the Catalan region of Spain. Elsewhere, people were killed by falling trees and debris coming loose from buildings.

Winds of nearly 200 km/h also brought down many power cables. More than 1.5 million homes in France suffered power cuts, while road and rail links were blocked and airports had to close.

Here in Ireland the weather has been less severe than on the continent, but there were also strong winds with forces between 8 and 11 - and occasionally reaching even force 12 off the coast - over the past few days. It has been quite cold and raining heavily, with the high winds coming in from the Atlantic doing some damage to power cables and trees.

Fortunately there have been no weather-related deaths in Ireland, and no major damages were reported. However, a number of sporting events - including several race meetings - had to be cancelled or postponed because of bad weather and water-logged grounds.

And here in Waterford strong gusts blowing in from the Celtic Sea caused some traffic disruption on major city streets. There was debris reported on the Cork Road, the Tramore Road and in a number of nearby housing estates.

According to the Meteorological Office the weather will remain unpleasant for at least another 24 hours, and perhaps longer.

The Emerald Islander

Dempsey does more Damage to CIÉ

Is there anyone in our incompetent government who understands at least the basic rules of Economics, and how markets and societies work? Obviously not.

The latest example of a goat made gardener is Noel Dempsey (right), a pigheaded Fianna Fáil apparatchik from Co. Meath and the Cabinet's bouncer, who has been in charge of too many government departments to keep track of them all.
However, people working in those departments do remember him well, as he left each of them in a real mess when he was moved on to run down and wreck the next one. (They loathe him especially in Education, and among the civil servants in the Customs House - home of the Dept. of the Environment - he has a status only one step removed from the Anti-Christ...)

Currently Dempsey is in charge of Transport, since Martin Cullen (left), our very own little clown from Waterford city who had it before him, did not manage to destroy the public transport system quickly enough.
Not for want of trying, mind you, but Martin is just not very effective, regardless what he does.
Dempsey will do better, and today he moved another step closer to dismantle the already poor structure of public transport in Ireland.

He told the Dáil that Coras Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) - the state-owned holding company that controls Iarnród Éireann (the Irish railways), Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus - "will make a deficit of € 39 million this year", compared with a deficit of just under € 1.5 million in 2007.

Anyone who knows CIÉ with its arrogant and self-serving attitudes, sluggish and inefficient management, under-qualified but over-paid staff and total lack of regard for its passengers will not be surprised. Only those who have no other choice ever travel with the three CIÉ companies.

To give you an example: Both Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann provide regular services from Waterford to Dublin (and back, if you are lucky). So anyone here who has business in Dublin can get there by either train or bus. The problem is that there are only a few services per day, and none at all in the evening or through the night.
If I want to use a train, I can leave Waterford at about 7.30 a.m. and will be in Dublin by 10 a.m., unless there is "a problem on the line", which happens rather often. By bus it will take me three hours, but the costs are almost the same.
I have to be very quick in Dublin, as the last bus back to Waterford leaves the capital at 6 p.m. and the last train only a few minutes later. This means that anything that extends beyond 5 p.m. cannot be done in Dublin when using CIÉ services. Not even to mention the idea of going to a concert or seeing a play in a Dublin theatre. Impossible for an Irish provincial person depending on public transport.

So if one has a longer day in Dublin, a car is the only way to get there - and back - in a reasonable way. However, there is - at least from Waterford (and several other towns along the route) - an alternative to the CIÉ services. A private bus company runs a regular service to Dublin (city and airport) seven days a week. And guess what? Their fare is half of what CIÉ charges, and they go a lot more often, including at night. It is no surprise that their buses are usually well filled, while CIÉ services drive around the country with their buses often more than half empty.

Irish People are not stupid. But unfortunately our current government (a coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party) is, and the management of CIÉ follows the government closely.

CIÉ's mismanagement has now run up an amazing deficit of over € 39 million. This is a lot for you and me, but only a small sum for a government these days.
Especially one that has just declared it will hand over € 10 billion to save our failing (privately owned) banks.
In many other EU countries public transport operations like CIÉ receive hundreds of millions of state subsidies every year, in order to provide a proper, functional and affordable system of public transport. And there people use their trains, buses and trams all the time, in large numbers and quite happily.

But what is Ireland doing? Our idiot of a Transport Minister has nothing better to offer than an increase of (the already way too expensive) fares by a further 10%, a reduction of the frequency of services, and a withdrawl of some routes altogether.

Is there a doctor in Leinster House? (There are actually a few...)
Because someone qualified needs to certify Noel Dempsey as insane and remove him from his job to a lunatic asylum, where he belongs!

What Noel Dempsey proposed today will make CIÉ even less attractive for potential passengers, and thus create an increase in losses, and nothing else.
But then again, who knows, perhaps this is exactly his intention and brief. If FF's chief wrecker makes CIÉ even more uncompetitive as it is already, the government could justify to break it up and privatise its pieces. I am sure some greedy financial vultures with deep pockets and friendly relations to Fianna Fáil are already waiting in the wings.

In order to flourish - or at least function properly - CIÉ needs to lower its fares (in some cases significantly), increase its frequency of services, improve the technical quality and comfort of its rolling stock, get rid of its incompetent management and its arrogant attitude, and then - under new leaders - train and motivate its staff for the 21st century. It is not difficult to do that, as long as there is a will and competent people. All over Europe it works very well.

Only here in Ireland the government is incapable of creating and maintaining a decent public transport system, available to the majority of the people and affordable for all. Besides Health, Education and the financial sector, public transport and infrastructure is the most seriously underfunded part of our nation and one of the worst managed as well. But it is a vital factor for the economy, and essential in the attempt to get out of recession.
Without proper transport systems, neither goods and materials will flow, nor will people have enough regular mobility.

This is not rocket science. Everyone with common sense and at least some understanding of the economy will grasp this nettle quite easily.
However, when it comes to brains, new ideas, imagination and the ability to solve problems, our current government is an infertile wasteland. And among the intellectually challenged in Leinster House Noel Dempsey is one of the most serious cases. If he ever had a brain, it must have gone AWOL at some stage without anyone noticing.

The sooner he is removed from his current position, the better for CIÉ and public transport in Ireland. In fact, the sooner the whole government goes, the better for everyone and everything on this island.

The Emerald Islander

Alleged Sexual Assault on Waterford Bus

Two investigations - one by Gardaí and the other by Bus Éireann - are under way in Waterford into an alleged sexual assault on a 15-year-old schoolgirl on a bus. The incident is reported to have happened at the end of a scheduled Bus Éireann service.

A Bus Éireann driver from Waterford with strong interests in Football and younger women has been questioned about the incident.

In the evening of Friday, December 5th, a 15-year-old girl who lives in Co. Waterford, reported to Gardaí through her parents that she had consensual sex with a bus driver earlier that day.

The incident is alleged to have happened when everyone else had left the bus at the end of a scheduled route in Co. Waterford.
The girl was returning from school, but Bus Éireann says it was "not a school run" and "not a school bus". Which leaves only the regular line services the state-owned company runs from the city centre to various parts of the surrounding county, in particular to Tramore and Dungarvan.

After Gardaí were informed, they arrested and questioned the married man from Waterford.

They also carried out a forensic examination of the bus the following day and searched the driver's locker. But they would not confirm if they found a mobile phone belonging to the man and which is now forming part of their investigations.

Gardaí have confirmed that a file is being prepared for the DPP, but so far no one has been charged.

Bus Éireann says that the man "is not driving at present", and an internal investigation is under way.

Waterford damaged by 'Mini Tornado'

Waterford, Ireland's oldest city, was hit by a 'mini tornado' shortly before 3.30 p.m. this afternoon.
More than two dozen houses have been damaged, following a sudden burst of extremely heavy storm that struck the area without meteorological warning.

Worst affected was the Larchville estate in the western part of the city, close to the main campus of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and near our world-famous glass factory Waterford Crystal.
Significant damage has been done to houses, and some trees in the area were knocked down as well. But fortunately there are no reports of anyone being injured.

Adverse weather conditions have hit Ireland and the sea areas around the island for the past two days, and the forecast for tonight, tomorrow and the coming days is pretty bad, too. Very stormy and wet weather is upon us, with heavy rain, gusts, hail and even thunderstorms. The strength of winds around the Irish coasts for the coming night is predicted to be between force 9 (severe gale) and force 11 (violent storm).

There are also reports of localised flooding in many parts of the south-east of Ireland.

So it is once again time to get the Wellington boots out, brace ourselves, lock the door, secure the windows, and make sure that a good fire is burning in the hearth all night.

The Emerald Islander

Irish Shipbuilding Skills are sufficient for the Construction of a new Sail Training Vessel

According to several experts in traditional ship and boat building, a possible replacement for the sail training vessel Asgard II (archive photo left), which sank off the coast of France on September 11th (see my entry of that day), could be built in Ireland with existing Irish skills and craftsmanship.

Michael Kennedy and Bill Crampton, the two shipwrights who led the construction of the replica famine ship Dunbrody - a three-masted barque now moored as a museum vessel in New Ross, Co. Wexford - have told the Irish Times that their entire team is "still alive and well" and "available for such a project", should it become necessary.

A suitable premises for building a new vessel may also be available in the south-east of Ireland - most likely the place in New Ross where the Dunbrody was built - to ensure that it would be ready in time for the next Irish hosting of the International Tall Ships' Race, in 2011 here in Waterford.

Ireland's Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea, who is also chairman of Coiste an Asgard, had expressed concern about the availability of skills in Ireland to build a replacement, if such a decision was taken.
O'Dea was commenting after the sinking of the 27-year-old brigantine in the Bay of Biscay, but before an inspection of the vessel had taken place.

Now Coiste an Asgard is hoping to raise and repair the sunken vessel, which has meanwhile been inspected and found widely intact, sitting upright on the seabed, with only minor visible damage to the hull. (see my entry of October 3rd)
Insurers are assessing the situation, and an investigation into the cause of the sinking is still being conducted by Irish and French maritime authorities.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Defence said that it was "still too early to say whether any attempt would be made to salvage the Asgard II", lying in 80 metres of water, or rather build a replacement.

The beautiful green-painted brigantine, designed and built in 1980-81 by Jack Tyrrell of Arklow, Co. Wicklow, was insured for € 3.8 million. The Dunbrody construction team said this could provide "vital seed capital" to build a new training ship for the Irish State.

Up to 65 people worked on the construction of the Dunbrody in New Ross, Co. Wexford, which was launched by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in February 2001. The project was initiated by Seán Reidy of the John F. Kennedy Trust, and based on the design of an emigrant ship built in Quebec/Canada for a New Ross merchant family in 1845.

Over the ten years it took to build the replica Dunbrody (in the foreground below), extensive skill training took place at the wharf, and the national training authority FÁS was heavily involved in it as well. The building of the Dunbrody cost a total of € 6 million, including FÁS labour, whereas the Kerry-built replica famine ship Jeanie Johnston (in the background below) ran well over budget and cost eventually € 15.8 million.

Michael Kennedy said that - in addition to his own team - several craftsmen involved in the construction of the Jeanie Johnston also had sufficient skills to work on a new vessel, and he hoped that the maritime sector would co-operate on such an initiative if it was approved by the Irish government.

"We've had a sail training ship since the foundation of the State, starting with the original Asgard," he explained, "and it would be a terrible pity if we did not have one in future."

Bill Crampton added that proposals to hire the Jeanie Johnston to continue the sail training programme "might meet a short-term need, but it would not be a suitable successor to the Asgard II".

I completely agree with both statements, as I have already expressed in previous articles here. And I would even suggest that building a new (second) sail training vessel for the State should be considered, even if the Asgard II can be salvaged and put back into service.
In the 1980s, when she was constructed, the interest in sail training was very limited in Ireland. The Asgard II was purpose-built as a brigantine to fulfil the Irish need and demand of the time. But now her limited capacity of only 20 trainee places is almost too small for the meanwhile increased interest in sailing and sail training here.

Especially in recent years - due to the great success of the annual Tall Ships' Race and other major sailing regattas and events for tall ships - the idea of sailing and using tall ships for training and team building exercises for young people has become very popular.
Being an island nation with a long and considerable seafaring tradition, Ireland could well afford and sustain two sail training vessels.

The element of costs will of course be a major argument in the current times of recession and global financial crisis. But I would not worry about that. If organised properly, the money for a new vessel could be raised through public subscription. There are many wealthy people in Ireland and around the world, and many of them are sailing enthusiasts.

I would be prepared, willing and more than happy to organise the fund-raising activity for a new Irish sail training vessel and have in fact already made some contacts with other people in the sailing community about it. The reactions I received are all very positive, so now it is up to the government and Coiste an Asgard to make a decision.

The Emerald Islander

Talks in Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford

Christ Church Cathedral (Church of Ireland / Anglican) in Waterford City is holding a series of three late morning talks this coming week. They take place in the cathedral (photo) and begin at 11 a.m.

The speakers are three well-known local historians, and the first is Waterford City Archivist Donal Moore, who will talk tomorrow - Monday, September 29th - about the photographer Annie Brophy.

On Tuesday, September 30th, Julian Walton (known for the 'On this Day" slot on local radio WLRfm) will give a talk on the History of Christ Church Cathedral.

There will be no talks on Wednesday and Thursday, but on Friday, October 3rd, Eamonn McEneaney, Director of the Waterford Museum of Treasures, will speak about a recent pilgrimage from Waterford to Santiago de Compostela.

Admission is free, all are welcome, and there will also be tea and coffee served afterwards.

My own little private Oktoberfest

In Munich, capital of the Bavarian Free State in Germany, this is the second weekend of the annual Oktoberfest, the world's oldest and largest beer festival, which is celebrated this year for the 175th time. (see my entry from September 21st)

It is a long time now that I lived there, but I still have good memories of those years.
Even though I have never been a fan of crowds, noise and large celebrations, I did visit the Oktoberfest while I was living literally on its doorstep. There were always friends who would go anyway, and so I went along with them, drinking a few beers, eating traditional food and then having a congenial Virginier cigar with another beer or a coffee.

I haven't been back since I moved to Ireland, and I really don't miss it. But even a serious man like me who is not very emotional has his sentimental moments. I am a human being after all...

So when I encountered - quite unexpectedly - the stall of a traditional German bakery on the annual French Market here in Waterford today (see my earlier entry below), I was touched in a rare and positive way. For the first time in nearly two decades I saw Brezn and Salzweckerln (traditional Bavarian glazed bread roles, sprinkled with large salt crystals) right in front of me, and I could hardly believe my eyes and my luck.

There was no possibility to pass the stall without buying some of them. Sentimental feelings and old memories were much too strong. So I bought a couple of each and went home a happy man.
But on the way it dawned on me that this was only one element of the traditional Bavarian meal, known as a Brotzeit. To make it complete, I would also need some Weisswurst (white sausage), a Radi (large white radish, also known as Muli, as depicted here) and some Bavarian beer, preferrably from Munich. Sweet Bavarian mustard, which is the final ingredient to make it perfect, I have at home anyway.

So I made a little detour and stopped at ALDI, a German supermarket nearby, which has all the traditonal German food, as well as the usual Irish items. I found what I was looking for, including original Spaten beer from Munich, the very same that is served in the Schottenhamel beer hall at the Oktoberfest. (The Schottenhamel is traditionally the place where the Mayor of Munich declares the festival open by tapping the very first keg of beer himself.)

I should mention that I am a vegetarian for more than ten years now, and that I seldom drink alcoholic beverages. But I am not a fanatic and there is no ideology behind my choice to live on a vegetarian diet. And as much as I abstain from meat and meat products normally, an authentic Munich Brotzeit simply needs Weisswurst. It wouldn't be the same without it.

So this is a very special day for me, and earlier this evening I sat down and had my Brotzeit with everything one would have in Munich. I even put a CD with traditional Bavarian music into my player, to make it a perfect experience and celebrate my very own little private Oktoberfest here in the heart of Waterford, the oldest city in Ireland.

The Emerald Islander

French Market in Waterford

Waterford, Ireland's oldest city and my home now for nearly two decades, is twinned with the town of Saint-Herblain, the largest suburb of the city of Nantes in France.

Usually one does not see a lot of evidence of this relationship, except that there is a housing estate in Waterford named St. Herblain Park. But once a year the twinning brings a traditional French street market to Waterford, occupying the Jenkins Lane area close to the western end of the old city wall.

This weekend - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - the market is here again, and of course I went for a strole and a good look today. Even though the availability of foreign - including French - food in the Republic of Ireland has much increased during the past ten years, there are still certain kinds of food and special delicacies one cannot find in Irish shops.

The annual French Market brings those rare treats to the city, and many local people go there and take the opportunity to buy good French wines and cheeses, nice home-made biscuits and sweets, meats and sausages of high quality and many other continental delicacies. Or they might try one of the enticing crepes that are made there fresh to order.

I had a good look around this afternoon, and once again encountered a number of the traditional stalls with food we don't see here normally. This is always a great experience.

However, I have to admit that I am a little disappointed. There are a lot less traditional French stalls here this year, and I wonder why. The gaps have been filled with plenty of market traders from all parts of Ireland, who of course do not offer French food and delicacies. There are instead plenty of stalls selling clothes, fashion items, jewellery, children's toys and all sorts of nick-nack.
As much as there is certainly a time and place for such as well, it changes the character of the market, which is no longer what it once was - a traditional French food market.

What surprised me most was to see not one, but two so-called 'bouncy castles' at the western end of the market. These strange contraptions of inflated plastic are one of the many bad things we have adopted from the USA. In my opinion they have no place on a traditional street market, and parents who bring their small children should well be able to look after them and show them the lovely things the market offers, instead of parking them at the 'castles' where they hop up and down in a rather senseless way. It is also worth mentioning that these 'bouncy castles' need a permanent supply of compressed air, provided by a generator that uses up energy and creates noise and pollution.

So I went home today slightly disappointed, and with a lot less goods than I had bought there in previous years. Sad really, that a good idea has been altered in this way, and I hope that next year the traditional French market stalls will be back with all their rare and delicious treats.

However, there was one unexpected positive encounter, which compensated me for the missing French stalls and really made my day. Among the many market traders I found a stall from a traditional German bakery, offering breads, bread rolls and numerous cakes and pastries I have never seen offered in Ireland before.

Having lived in Germany for quite some time, I am familiar with these delicious bakery products and seeing them suddenly right in front of me here in Ireland almost transported me back in time and space to the many traditional bakeries one can find all over Germany. For reasons I do not know there are very few such bakeries in Ireland, and most Irish people eat fluffy soft white 'bread' that I would not call by that name. It is produced in large factories, sold in all shops and supermarkets, and it is totally tasteless as well as unhealthy.

What a difference between two countries and cultures! But today I saw this German bakery stall and bought traditional bread and pastries I have not eaten for nearly twenty years. So despite a lack of French delicacies I anticipated to buy, I went home with a bag full of lovely German bread and pastries. That made me very happy, and as I write this, there is a pot of tea to my right and a nice round German pastry with plums, crumble and icing sugar to my left. What more does one need to have a good weekend...

The Emerald Islander

More Job Cuts in Waterford

Another company in Waterford is planning do reduce its workforce.
Honeywell Transportation, which operates in the IDA industrial estate in Waterford City, seeks a further 50 job cuts on top of 100 that were announced already in July. The company is also introducing short-time working "until Christmas at least".

Three months ago the US multinational firm announced that up to 100 redundancies were being sought at its Waterford facility. Managers informed employees that they would start consultation with its union representatives on a plan to reduce the workforce by between 85 and 100 employees by the end of this year.

Now the company says that "due to instability and continued declines in demand in the automotive market" an additional 50 jobs are at risk, as well as a possibility for other actions to address the loss of volume.

Talks between the trade unions and management at the company are in progress.

Waterford Man arrested for Shooting at Girl

A 27-year-old man from Waterford - charged in connection with the shooting of a teenage girl in the city on Monday - has been remanded in custody.

Patrick Stokes from Ardmore Park in Ballybeg (an area renowned for troubles and crime) was charged at a sitting of Waterford District Court tonight with "assault causing harm" and a firearms charge. He was granted free legal aid and will appear again before the Court next Thursday.

16-year-old Bridget Delaney was injured during a shooting incident outside her home in Bilberry on Monday night.