Thunderstorms and torrential Rainfalls caused severe Flooding, Damage and Chaos in Dublin

Nine days after the Gweedore area on the Atlantic coast of Co. Donegal (in the far North-West of Ireland) was hit by downpours of heavy rain and subsequently affected by severe flooding (see my entries of June 23rd & 24th), similar weather conditions have occurred on a much larger scale in several parts of the island.

In the early hours of this morning - especially in the three hours between about 2 am and 5 am - a series of sudden thunderstorms with torrential downpours of rain hit areas in the South and East, as well as parts of the Midlands. But the most severely affected area today was Dublin.

Massive rainfall of up to 40 mm per hour overwhelmed the drainage system in the capital and caused severe flooding on the north-side of the city, in particular in Howth, Malahide, Drumcondra, Glasnevin (left), Clontarf and Donnycarney.

By about 5 am many areas of Dublin were affected by the floods, which caused the early morning traffic to be seriously disrupted and come to a complete standstill on some main roads. Motorists described the worst hit areas in the Dublin area as "akin to swimming pools".

According to Gardaí the southbound slip road at the junction of the M 1/M 50 interchange in the North of Dublin is affected, as are Newlands Cross on the N 7 and Rathcoole.
The M 1 at the entrance to the Dublin Port Tunnel is "barely passable on one lane only". The other three lanes are impassable. People have also been asked to avoid the coast road in particular.

The N 11, which was closed this morning from Booterstown Avenue to Fosters Avenue, has now reopened. There are however still problems southbound at the Loughlinstown Roundabout.

Flooding was also reported from the areas of Collins Avenue, Richmond Road, Sherrard Street, Clanmoyle Road (right) and many other districts of Dublin's inner city.

The Dublin Fire Brigade has appealed to people not to travel this morning, unless absolutely necessary. In particular it is asking people not to drive into areas where roads are flooded, as there is a real risk they will become stranded.

As I write this, many roads in and around Dublin are still affected by flooding, and some DART (Dublins city railway) services are also not operating because of water on the tracks.

According to Met Éireann (the national meteorological office) more than two weeks' of average rainfall was recorded this morning at Dublin Airport in just one hour.
However, the airport remains open and a spokesperson said that flights were not affected. But passengers are advised to give themselves extra time getting to the airport because of flooding on some of the approach roads.

In the North of Dublin's inner city the greatest damage reported so far was caused in Sherrard Street, where 20 people had to be evacuated from their apartments by members of the Civil Defence Force at around 4 am.

Serious damage has also been reported from the Mater Hospital (left), which is one of Dublin's largest medical facilities. Their Accident & Emergency department has been flooded and remains closed.
A flat roof in the old part of the hospital has also collapsed, and a number of patients had to be moved from one of the wards.
In announcements on RTÉ Radio and local radio stations people have been asked not to come to the hospital for acute treatment in the A&E sector for the time being.
A hospital spokeswoman advised that people with outpatient appointments today could attend as normal, while those scheduled to have elective surgery should contact the hospital before leaving their home to check if their appointment has been affected.

The Fire Brigade was also called to a residential house in Monkstown, Co. Dublin, where the roof has collapsed.

Iarnród Éireann (the Irish railways) announced that all their services are "running as normal again", after they were earlier experiencing disruption due to flooding.
In particular, flooding at Dún Laoghaire had disrupted rail services on the line between Dalkey and Dún Laoghaire.
However, the railway station at Bayside is still closed due to flooding and no DART trains are stopping there. Passengers are being asked to use the Sutton or Howth Junction stations as an alternative. Dublin Bus says it is accepting rail tickets in the area.

This morning a spokesman for Dublin City Council has said that "potentially any house in the capital could have been flooded overnight". This statement has surprised and alarmed many citizens who wonder how safe it actually is to live in Dublin.

City Council emergency staff and members of the Civil Defence Force had been on standby since a weather warning was issued by Met Éireann at 9 pm las night. They went out once rain began to fall at 2 am, but the severe force of the weather soon overwhelmed all attempts of organised damage limitation.

Meanwhile people have criticised Dublin City Council for negligance and for not maintaining the drainage and sewerage system properly. Only in August of last year Dublin experienced a spell of similar bad weather, which caused widespread flooding in some areas. Afterwards City Council officials promised to improve the drainage system and work on better protective measures. But residents affected by today's floods say that "nothing has been done" and that many properties are in serious danger. Apart from August 2008, the last time Dublin was hit by weather of this severity was thirteen years ago.

Here in the South-East we also experienced torrential rain, but it was by far not as severe as in Dublin.
I woke up shortly after 3 am from the noise of loud thunder and heavy rain falling onto the roof of my house with amazing speed. It sounded almost like a massive crescendo created by a band of wild drummers. When I got up and looked out of the window, I saw rainfall of a severity we have not experienced here in many years. It appeared as if someone was standing on the roof, emptying barrels of water without pause.
However, there have been so far no reports of flooding or damage in our area, and I am happy to say that at present the rain has stopped here.

But the flood peril might not be over yet. According to Met Éireann the current weather system coming into Ireland from across the Atlantic is still "a massive low front" and more heavy rain is expected over the coming days.
Gerald Fleming, chief meteorologist at Met Éireann, said the warm and humid weather we experienced over the past two weeks was the main cause for this morning's thunderstorms. And there could well be more to come, together with torrential rainfall.

Somehow this all reminds me of last year's washed-out 'summer', and I can only hope that after the low front has passed over us eventually, some warmer weather with sunshine will come back to Ireland. It is bad enough to be in a deep economic recession and ruled by a totally incomptent government. But when the weather is turning against us as well, it is almost too much to bear.

The Emerald Islander

Dublin in Traffic Chaos over Bus Drivers' Strike

Dublin Bus services are in disarray and many city routes face severe disruption as a result of an unofficial work stoppage by numerous drivers at the company's bus depots.

The strike action began already yesterday morning, when drivers stopped working in sympathy with a colleague on route 128. This driver was suspended by the management "for refusing to work to a new schedule".

Trade unions had accepted Labour Court recommendations on the bus company's € 31 million cost-cutting measures that included a reduction of the fleet by 120 buses.
Most of the drivers are unhappy with new schedules which were coming into effect yesterday and had been recommended by the Labour Court.

Dublin Bus routes that will have no service at all are the numbers 4 and 4A, 13 and 13A, 17A, 33B, 40, 102, 128, 140, 142, 237, 238, 239 and 270.
There is also disruption to at least ten routes, partly serviced by drivers and buses from the Harristown depot. These are the numbers 37 and 37X, 38 and 38C, 39 and 39X, 41 and 41X, 43 and 70.

The drivers claim that while the broad proposals had been accepted by their unions over a week ago, the working arrangements for drivers on each of the routes affected by the cuts had to be worked out locally before the implementation of the cuts.
They said agreement had been reached on all but one of the routes due to be cut or changed. And when the first driver turned up to work that one route - the 128 - yesterday morning, he refused to operate the new schedule and was suspended, prompting the action by the other drivers at the depot.

There were already serious implications and traffic disruptions all throughout Dublin yesterday. But today, on a normal working day, things are a lot worse. Tens of thousands of commuters who rely on the services of Dublin Bus to get from their homes to their places of work are affected by the bus drivers' dispute. Many did not manage to reach work at all, and many more arrived late, in cases up to four hours late.
Others, who - in anticipation of the bus strike - decided to come into the city by car, had not much joy either. The increase in private cars coming in, together with some bus routes operating irregular intervals, while others operate normal as always and some are shut down completely, is causing a massive traffic chaos, with long tailbacks and traffic jams on all major city streets and ringroads.

But while hundreds of thousands of Dubliners (and the visitors to our capital) are suffering from the various elements of this complete chaos and breakdown of organised inner city traffic, the man responsible is enjoying himself on a day out in the country. Transport Minister Noel Dempsey (right) decided not to bother at all with Dublin today and to stay for another fine day in his rural constituency of Co. Meath, which is not so far from the capital, but far enough to escape the traffic chaos and the angry bus drivers.

Noel Dempsey, one of the most pigheaded and incompetent of Fianna Fáil's politicians, is now in his fourth ministerial job at cabinet level. After being a junior minister and the government 'chief whip' from 1992 to 1994, Dempsey was promoted to the cabinet in 1997 as Minister for the Environment, Heritage & Local Government. After the 2002 election Bertie Ahern moved him to Education & Science, and in September 2004 Dempsey moved again, this time to Communications, Natural Resources and the Marine. In each of these three positions he proved to be a complete disaster. He dreamed up the introduction of electronic voting machines for Ireland in his first cabinet job, and it took more than ten years to decide to get rid of them eventually.
As Education Minister he upset the Curriculum and many teachers, and after his spell in charge of the Marine the department was so wrecked and depleated of resources that it was abolished in 2007 and incorporated into the Department of Transport, to which Dempsey was moved subsequently.

He has absolutely no idea about traffic and transport, and his only real involvement in that matter was the fact that he and his brother bought up most of the land in Co. Meath that was later allocated - and thus bought by the government for a much higher price - to the route of the controversial M 3 motorway.
Since last December Dempsey has been working hard to undermine the already weak system of public transport in Ireland (see my entries of December 17th, 2008 and January 20th, 2009). Part of that process are fare increases and budget cuts for the state-owned transport company Coras Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) and its component parts Iarnród Éireann (Irish Railways), Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus. The most severe measures, including the cuts of bus routes and decommissioning of 120 buses, Dempsey applied to Dublin Bus.

He is the one man solely responsible for today's traffic chaos, and for a lot more damage to this country's transport system. Every day he remains in the cabinet and in charge of Transport, things can only get worse.

The Emerald Islander

The most depressing Day in the Year

This morning someone on the radio made the remark that January 19th is - apparently - "the most depressing day in the year". How they come to that conclusion I do not know, and it was not really explained on the programme either. These days many radio presenters have the habit of throwing in comments, remarks and statements that they have neither researched nor cross-checked.
On the other hand, there are countless statistics nowadays, about anything and everything. So it is quite possible that there is such a statistic and that it puts a black mark on this day - January 19th.

Whatever is the case, the stock brokers in Dublin must have been listening to the programme this morning. And they took it very seriously and decided to contribute to the day appropriately. Subsequently the value of Irish bank shares has dropped to another all-time low.
As I write this, shares in Allied Irish Bank (AIB) dropped by almost 52% to 70 cents, after slumping as much as 60% earlier. Bank of Ireland is down now 20% to 60 cents per share, which is already a recovered value from earlier falls of 47%. And Irish Life & Permanent, who own the permanent tsb bank, tumbled 32% to € 1.49.

Today's falls come in the wake of market suggestions that Bank of Ireland and AIB look unlikely to be able to raise extra cash from private investors to top up a proposed state investment in the banks.

It appears that a statement I made on the BBC's "Any Questions?" programme more than seven years ago was quite correct, and every day this becomes more obvious to everyone.
What I said - back in September 2001, shortly after the airborne terror attacks on New York and Washington - was this:

"It becomes quite clear that conventional capitalism as we know it does no longer work. There are people on this planet who - for whatever reason - no longer want to live and work, inspired by the chance to gain wealth and personal comfort, but prefer instead killing themselves, if they can do serious damage to the capitalist system in the process. This means that no business and no organisation that follows the traditional capitalist system alone will be save and successful in future."

There might well be people who heard my statement then and made changes to their lives and to their business, as I did myself. But the vast majority did not. In fact, here in Ireland the small class of really wealthy people took no notice of it at all, as they have never listened to anyone 'on the outside' ever. They just think that their wealth gives them complete immunity from the rest of the world.
For the past ten years they created an artificial bubble of social and financial illusions that puts the well-known story of The Emperor's New Clothes well into the shadows. In the process they have not only done great damage to themselves and their companies, but to the Irish nation as a whole. Now chicken are coming home to roost on an almost daily basis, and there is for now no end in sight.

As this is supposed to be "the most depressing day in the year", I will oblige and make another statement on this matter.
Not only does conventional capitalism as we know it no longer work in the face of fundamentalist terrorism that has no concern for human lives, it does also no longer work in a globalised world that allows banks to create and gamble with artificial money that does not exist, never will exist, and has no relation to any real values.

For thousands of years people used raw materials, produced something other people wanted, and sold it to them for a price higher than the costs of production. That way they made a profit, and this is the core of old-fashioned capitalism.
Nowadays more and more manufacturing - even the production of the most basic goods - is "outsourced" to low-wage economies, mostly in the Far East. Meanwhile here in the West our apparently so bright and clever people find it more suitable to concentrate on 'financial services', which means in plain English gambling with other people's money and getting paid huge bonuses for it, just like in any casino in Las Vegas. What they really are is not bright and clever at all, but greedy and stupid

If we keep this up and do not learn our economic lessons very quickly, capitalism in any form will cease to exist. Private enterprises and public services alike will collapse, and Ireland - together with many other countries, especially in the English-speaking world - will encounter a period of absolute anarchy, violence and destruction. What ever will emerge from that after some time is anyone's guess and unpredictable, even for someone with a good track record of correct predictions.

There is still time to get things right, but not a lot of it is left. Money and time are literally running out for Ireland. The only way to turn things around is a radical change of direction, under a strong leadership.

Well, perhaps that researcher quoted on the radio this morning was right after all and this is the most depressive day of the year...

The Emerald Islander

Financial Markets in Freefall and Meltdown

Today the ISEQ share index in Dublin has suffered a record one-day fall, ending down 13% and closing at 3292.

Especially shares in Irish banks plummeted, as a series of US and European bank failures sparked further fears that the massive bailout plan in the USA may not be enough to deal with the problems in the sector.
Shares in Anglo Irish Bank (AIB) were down more than 45% at one stage, while Irish Life & Permanent (who own the permanent tsb bank in Ireland) fell by more than 30%.

Other European shares dropped to a three-and-a-half year closing low. London's FTSE ended down 5.3% - at 4819 - after it was announced that the British government decided to partly nationalise another bank (and former building society), Bradford & Bingley.

Falls in Belgium and the Netherlands were especially steep, following the announcement that their governments, together with Luxembourg, had agreed to nationalise one of Europe's biggest banks - Fortis - in a € 11.2 billion bailout.

Later the US House of Representatives voted against the proposed $ 700 billion rescue package for the financial sector and especially Wall Street, put together by George W. Bush, his Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke. The House rejected the bill with a clear majority of 228 votes to 205, with some conservative Republicans being the most vociferous opponents of a deal.

Subsequently the Dow Jones industrial average in New York plunged more than 600 points as the news reached Wall Street, closing eventually 778 points - 6.9% - lower. This is the biggest one-day drop ever for the Dow Jones.

The massive economic crisis, created by the greed and stupidity of reckless millionaire bankers and stock brokers, is far from over. And two things are becoming ever more evident:
1) Money is not everything, cannot solve every problem, and is actually becoming a big problem itself.
2) Uncontrolled capitalism, praised for decades as the solution for everything and the reason for our wealth and well-being, does not work!

The sooner we find a sensible alternative, the sooner the crisis will ease and a way out of recession will be found. I hope that Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan have what it takes to lead this nation...

The Emerald Islander

Total Chaos at Dublin Airport

The problems with the radar system at Dublin Airport (see my entry from yesterday) are not "fully resolved yet" and continued to disrupt and delay air traffic to and from Dublin all day today.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which is in charge of air traffic control, also said it is "unlikely that the air traffic control radar system (right) will be fully operational until after the weekend".

In fact, the faulty radar at Ireland's largest airport was only the trigger for a whole series of major problems which created a total chaos at Dublin Airport today. Nothing seems to work properly, no-one seems to know why, and no-one seems to take any responsibility for the mess.

Thousands of airline passengers spent many hours at the airport, waiting in uncertainty for flights or even proper information about them. Many flights were cancelled, others were delayed for hours.
Hundreds of passengers who were supposed to leave Dublin on various flights yesterday after 5 p.m. were left stranded at the airport overnight, without information when they could expect to depart and without any care and attention from anyone.

Neither the airlines, nor the IAA or the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) - now a private company - provided them with anything. There was no overnight accommodation, no food or drink, and no care for personal needs.

Many of the abandoned passengers gave up eventually and left Dublin Airport in disgust and anger, but several hundred, most of them from distant parts of Ireland and looking forward to their annual holidays, remained inside the airport all night. No-one tended to their needs, and they had no other choice but to sleep on the floor of the departure hall.
To make things even worse, at 4 a.m. this morning they were woken up by so-called "security guards" - uncivilised thugs in ill-fitting uniforms - who told them rudely that they had to get up and could not sleep on the airport's floor.

All day long more disruptions and delays blighted the operation of Dublin Airport, and none of the many employees of airlines, DAA and IAA knew really what was going on. Total chaos was the theme of the day. There was also no-one to be found who took any responsibility, as the DAA pointed to the IAA, who blamed the faulty radar. And the airlines pointed to both DAA and IAA, without any clue what was happening and without any efforts to make the life of their paying passengers easier.

This morning a group of Irish passengers were told that a flight to the French city of Nice, on which they were booked, was delayed "for several hours". They were told by airline ground staff to "go away and come back later" for further information. Following the advice, they went to the airport's restaurant area upstairs and had breakfast. When they returned to the airline counter about an hour later, they found out that their flight had left already, with their luggage on board.
Their (very understandable) anger and outrage caused a further disturbance of the already very tense situation, and instead of proper care and attempts to solve the problem, all the ignorant and incompetent airline staff did was to call "security" men.

If it were not so tragic for many hard-working people whose journey to their annual holiday is blighted by incompetence, mismanagement and a lack of interpersonal communication skills at Dublin Airport, one could sit back and laugh out loud. What a farce, what a shambolic and almost satirical situation!
Welcome to first world Ireland with third world technology and bronze age attitudes!

In a panic reaction to the chaos at its premises, the DAA doubled today its staff numbers "to deal with the increased passenger numbers" and the manifold problems at the airport. This can of course only be done by employing part-time personnel from agencies on short-term contracts, which means more untrained and inexperienced staff is populating the already chaotic mess that is the arrival point for most visitors to Ireland. DAA is also advising passengers to "check their flight details before flying". Well, that will be a great help, when even the ground staff of airlines is left widely in the dark and clueless.

Cautious as always and determined not to have any opinion at all, Dermot Mannion, the Chief Executive Officer of Ireland's flag carrier Aer Lingus, said today it would be "premature to apportion blame for the disruption".
I often wonder how whimps and yes-men get top jobs in our major industries and institutions...

Michael O'Leary (left), maverick Irish entrepreneur and boss of the most popular "low fare" airline Ryanair, is of a different calibre. He never minces his words and always calls a spade a spade. And good on him for that!
In an interview with the Morning Ireland programme on RTÉ Radio 1, O'Leary accused the IAA of being "not fit for purpose". He also predicted that the radar system would collapse again.

Later in the day the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey (right), was forced to comment on the matter. He told the Dáil that the air traffic control radar system at Dublin Airport was "now operating at 70% capacity" and that "testing" continued on the network. He added that it was "not practical to maintain a back-up radar system", which exists at many other major airports in the developed world.
Dempsey also made clear that the IAA is fully responsible for the matter of air traffic control and air safety. He stopped short of blaming it for the complete chaos that engulfed Dublin Airport yesterday and today (and which is expected to continue until "after the weekend").

Although the blame does obviously rest with the operators of Dublin Airport - in particular IAA and DAA - I cannot refrain from some critical remarks of a more general kind.
Too many people seem to think that flying around the world, or flying to some far-away place where it is warmer than in Ireland, is a good idea and more or less "normal". I disagree.

The massive increase in air traffic, much of it created by many so-called "low fare" airlines and widely supported by numerous travel agencies and holiday companies, is a serious anomaly and one of the main reasons for the drastic change of the global climate. The selfish desire to spend a couple of weeks on some far-away beach, where the massive sunshine burns the pale northern skins and creates more cases of skin cancer, is frankly idiotic, as well as self-destructive - for those individuals who do it, and for the whole planet.

Having become aware of the problems of air traffic and the huge pollution it creates already in the late 1980s, I decided to do my personal bit towards a cleaner planet, no matter how small it might be.
During the 1970s and 1980s I used aeroplanes regularly and flew to many destinations all around the world. All these flights were undertaken in the line of my service in the Navy, and for many of them I used military aircraft. But I have never been a tourist or holidaymaker, not even for a single day in all my life.
When I retired from the Navy and my personal circumstances changed, I decided to live a more environmentally friendly life.
I have not used an aeroplane for more than 17 years, and will never fly again. All destinations I have to travel to can easily be reached by other means, even though it does take a bit more time to get there without flying.

I have no right to tell other people how to behave, what to do and what not. And I don't. All I can do is to live my own life according to principals of logic and sensibility. If anyone wishes to do the same, it would be very easy, very welcome and very helpful for the planet.

The Emerald Islander

Management Chaos in Dublin Postal Areas

An Post, Ireland's national postal service, is advising customers not to post any letters to addresses in the Dublin postal areas of Ballsbridge or Blackrock due to a massive backlog of undelivered post.

A spokesperson of An Post said that a number of their staff are refusing to co-operate with their new working practices and are also refusing to do overtime.

In 2006 An Post and the Communications Workers Union agreed a new nationwide system for collection and delivery of post. The system has been successfully implemented in 16 areas across the country. However, management says that staff in Blackrock and Ballsbridge are refusing to co-operate with the new system, and as a result a one-week backlog of undelivered items has built up.

An Post acknowledged that the 2006 agreement had involved substantial change, but said the "localised problem in Ballsbridge and Blackrock" is now so serious that they are taking out several newspaper advertisements tomorrow, warning people not to post items to these areas until further notice.

It appears that the quality of management in An Post is getting ever more worse while their prices for postal items are going up all the time, some in quite ridiculous and uncompetitive steps.

However, there is no problem with posting items from the affected postal zones to other destinations, and counter services in post offices remain unaffected. There are also no problems in any other parts of the country.

The Emerald Islander