They’re wreckin’ the gaff
posted in Blog |You know how much I love Guinness. It is my soup, my cup of tea, my mouthwash, my holy water, my milk for my cornflakes, my maple syrup for my pancakes. It is my first, my last, my deep voiced everything.
And part of what’s great about Guinness is the tradition. Brewed for hundreds of years at St James’s Gate it’s a big part of this city. You don’t get it so much any more but the smell that used to waft across town from the brewery was the most Dublin smell I can think of. Not even the Liffey on its most stinkingest days came close.
But now they’re moving. They’re going to close the brewery and move to a ‘green field’ site. Of course I can understand it, more modern buildings and equipment, better use of space, custom designed ergonomic workplaces are all the rage. It’ll probably be cheaper to run and all that. All those reasons why large industry moves from city-centres.
But Diageo, owners of Guinness, aren’t just going to make Guinness elsewhere. They’re going to sell off much of the St James’s Gate property for ‘development’. I know that’s natural too, it’s prime real estate, but I can’t help but feel really sad about it.
I know we need progress but don’t we also have to respect some of our tradition too? Take this metro thing, for example. Apparently they’re going to ruin a large chunk of St Stephen’s Green to install the terminus there. The Fusilier’s Arch will be dug up along with dozens of mature trees and a good chunk of the lake and while the arch can be put back you can’t replace the trees. Now, I know public transport needs improving in this city but fucking hell, can’t they put the terminus somewhere else where it wouldn’t case that kind of destruction?
The Green is quite unique. Maybe as Dubliners we don’t stop to appreciate it for what it is. It’s a little oasis in the centre of town. It’s a beautiful park, a place to stroll, to sit on a bench and watch people go by, to hang out in the summer time with friends or to lie on the grass with your girl/boyfriend. I’m pretty sure everyone in this city, and many people beyond, have wonderful memories of time spent in the Green. It is probably one of the very best things about Dublin and it looks like we’re taking it granted. Or allowing it to be taken for granted.
To destroy a large part of it for a metro line is just utterly wrong. Noel Dempsey, Minister for Transport, says of the upcoming disruption caused by the construction of the metro line, that you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Well, Mr Dempsey, sometimes you don’t need as big an omelette as you think.
It was Arthur Guinness who paid for St Stephen’s Green to be laid out as it is today. How ironic that both of Arthur’s gaffs now face bulldozers and wrecking balls and construction works. I’ll be sad to see St James’s Gate turned into offices or apartments but it’s just a building at the end of the day.
If they wreck the Green I’ll be fucking livid.
