Wednesday, May 31, 2006

don't you know where you live?


This is the unofficial name of a small estate in Chapelizod, Dublin. It is a large concrete block surrounded by flowers, which are most attractively maintained by locals. The only problem is that almost facing it is this:

the official Dublin City Council name plate. It doesn't take much to see that the two are contradictory. I don't understand such imprecision. Doesn't it bother people that they might not know the name of their street or grove? St Laurence Rd is often 'corrected' to St Laurence's Rd, perhaps because people have an overwhelming desire to identify something with somebody, just as the corner shop used to be Martin Smith's or just Smith's. Now it's more likely to be Tesco, but not quite so local, and nobody wants to call it that: it's 'Tesco's', probably written 'Tescos'.

Dublin and the Liffey

Dublin central. This is looking east from the Halfpenny Bridge. The green-domed building is arguably the most important piece of architecture in the city, the Custom House (Gandon, finished 1791). It's now partly surrounded by fairly uninspiring new buildings, but if one gets up close its glory is still apparent. The interior and vast quantites of records were destroyed by the IRA during the Civil War (1921-2). The boardwalk on the left is recent and runs some distance along the north bank of the Liffey. The dock for water taxis is even newer. Posted by Picasa

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Classical music concerts


If classical music is in serious decline, one factor might be the unbelievably tedious programming policies of some orchestras. Masur is coming to Dublin with -- hold your breath -- a Brahms symphony and a Brahms concerto. Breath out. Noseda is doing three concerts for BBC Radio 3 this week and he's doing -- wait for it -- two Tchaikovsky symphonies in each programme. Numerous Proms this year will contain 'variations' on the overture, concerto, symphony plan. This is tedious. Classical composers wrote symphonic poems, arias, songs, short concerted pieces, dances, etc. Why not open a second half with a couple of Strauss waltzes, continue with the Litolff Scherzo (which is hardly ever played these days because it's not a symphony or overture, and we don't want to hear the whole work in which it occurs), and finish with a Liszt tone poem? Another programme could start -- when the audience is fresh and 'up for it' -- with a symphony and then, in the second half, we might like to hear something a little easier, such as the concert suite from Korngold's music for the film Seahawk. I see nothing infra dig in such programming. Far from it, I like a mixture of long and short works and would like to see contrast extended to include occasional solos or chamber groupings to give the orchestras a break. What I really don't want to see much more of is that dull dog Masur giving us endless concerts comprising a symphony and a concerto by the same composer. What a very unimaginative conductor he is (and not alone!).

Galway, Ireland

Galway is an essential trip for anyone visiting Ireland. It has been extensively built up in the past few years -- another sign of Ireland's economic success -- often in the ugliest, most brutal and/or banal way (as the picture discretely shows), but the city has nature, its people, and its proximity to the beauties of the west coast strongly in its favour. Posted by Picasa

art nouveau in Wilmington DE

I'm so used to standing speechless in front of masterpieces of the art deco style in America that I sometimes overlook the architecture that appeared just a few decades before. In some ways it's been overshadowed by the new, modernist styles that were appearing in the 1890s, and I'm sure a huge amount was torn down, but finding this attractive art nouveau bank in Wilmington was pure joy. I think that like most of the best architecture to survive in the downtown area it's in Market Street. (I would really appreciate a few suggestions of other buildings like this in the area.) Posted by Picasa

the Romans, Allies, and war crimes

We shudder with horror when we read of Roman conquests, the legions burning and massacring their way up through Europe. Whole towns and villages were brutally wiped out, including men, women, and children. The Germans did the same when they invaded Russia. Surely the Allies had a far more civilised vision. Alas, they didn't. Around 1943 the Allies decided to stop bombing specific industrial and military targets and targeted whole areas of towns and cities instead. As the technology improved maximum force was used to ensure that these areas were completely destroyed and, concomitantly, much of the population with them. This policy culminated in massive raids on Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan, and countless others. The men who sat down and planned these raids drew circles around areas that included thousands of people, their schools, hospitals, churches, shops, houses, etc. These men must have known that similar attacks on Coventry and London had made little difference to the war effort in England; in many ways they had stiffened people's resolve to fight on. The result of this policy was the massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the destruction of irreplaceable cultural artefacts, and years of suffering and hardship for the often innocent victims of war (people are still dying as a direct result of these attacks). As we reflect on this brutality, which was later continued by America in Vietnam and elsewhere, are we really entitled to think of ourselves as any more civilised than the ancient Romans? (the image shows Tokyo in March 1945)

old houses in Wilmington DE

With so much unimaginative office and multi-storey-parking development in Wilmington DE, it's a relief to see that the latest such development is at least going to keep a bit of historic Market Street by incorporating these buildings on one side of the block (plus a few others). Elsewhere downtown Wilmington is pretty grim with row upon row of car parks and architecurally dismal office blocks. Even the Dupont tower is disappointing, and the Dupont Hotel appears to have been remodelled in the post-war years in a pretty grim way. The neighbourhoods around the centre are, in contrast, gorgeous with lovely streets full of period terraces. Gilpin has a wonderful 19th century fire station and the area around the Delaware Art Museum is superbly landscaped and adorned with handsome town houses. It seems that wiser council now prevails in the downtown area, though I couldn't help but notice that five (?) period row houses at the bottom of the hill near Amtrak are slated for demolition. A great shame. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, May 27, 2006

abortion in Ireland

At a time when Amnesty International is considering whether it wishes to be proactively involved in advocating women's right to abortion, especially in rape and incest cases, it is salutory to remember that both N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland ban abortion completely, even in cases of rape and incest. In theory it is possible for a doctor to perform an abortion if a woman's life is in danger, but the state hasn't legislated on this, so the prevailing view that abortion constitutes malpractice on the part of a doctor may still prevail. Until recently Ireland, i.e. the Republic, also banned making information on abortion available to women; it also reserved the right to stop people travelling to Britain for an abortion, which resulted in the notorious X case, when a young girl who had been raped and made pregnant by a close relation was taken off the ferry. Since then information has been made available and people are left to make the miserable journey across the Irish Sea. As a result, every year Irish women in their thousands travel to Britain for abortions and consequently cannot receive the aftercare and support that is needed. Ireland's rigidity in this is, of course, closely related to the still inescapable influence of the Catholic Church, which also prevented couples getting divorced until 1997 (!). Irish people in the 1990s showed their strong objection to abortion in a referendum. I wonder if the people feel the same in 2006. Perhaps it is time to face up to the fact Irish women are having abortions whether the state likes it or not. Abortion exists in Ireland the same as elsewhere.

peace vigil in Kennett Square PA

Apparently this peace vigil occurs every Friday throughout the year, regardless of festivals, etc. in Kennett Square PA. More passing cars honked than didn't while I was there. I wonder how many more such protests are mounted thoughout the country. (Again we see the flag. It's not unpatriotic to oppose the war.) Posted by Picasa

cleaner, non-diesel public transport

This Washington DC bus, alongside its hybrid cousins in NYC, indicates that rather more is happening across the pond to combat oil-related woes than here in Dublin (and probably London too, though I haven't visited the city for a while), at least in public transport. I hope that this situation might change some day. I also hope that organisations who try alternatives get the encouragement and attention they deserve. Posted by Picasa

what are all those Christians doing in the USA?

According to one source, which easily accords with many other reports on the number of Christians in the US, there were around 159,030,000 Christians in the USA in 2001 out of a population of 224,437,959. We consistently hear about full churches in the country and the involvement of young people in various church-based activities. My personal experience tends, in a small way, to confirm this crucial distinction between the US and Europe, where the number of practising Christians has declined massively since the war.

The trouble is, I can't fathom what this vast quantity of Christian observance is achieving. I assume that in one way or another Christian teaching is broadly based on the teachings of Jesus as reported in the Bible, which, unless they've changed recently, tend to be pretty down on the acquisition of wealth and the waging of war. Given that America has budgeted on what is virtually a war footing since the war (in spite of having some of the safest boarders in the world), has waged several wars, and its people devote much of their time and energy to the acquisition of wealth way beyond what is required for comfortable survival, what are all these millions of Christians doing?

President Bush is one of them. What aspects of his conduct can be described as Christian? Does he respect life? Has he encouraged his country in the ways of peace? Has he helped the poor, preferably at the expense of the rich? What sort of religion is this?

Thursday, May 25, 2006

New York

When I look out at all this, I really do feel as if I'm at the centre of the modern universe. Sublime hardly begins to describe it. Posted by Picasa

patriotism in the US

It's all true. Many Americans are terribly patriotic. They cover their houses, graves, cars, monuments, garages, etc., etc., with flags; and even Michael Moore, who is highly critical of many American policies, has to wave the flag from time to time simply to be taken seriously. To be called unpatriotic is the killer insult; it deprives the victim of credibility. Recently a Republican justified the illegal war against Iraq on the grounds that it benefited American sovereignty. Terrific. I'm sure the parents of the 46,000 children who've so far died as a result of the invasion would be pleased to know that America has benefited in some way. The truth is, most Europeans are profoundly alarmed by all this patriotism. We know where it leads. Why can't even a few Americans ask a few searching questions about all the flags they fly? Is it not clear that the Christian values so many Americans are supposed to espouse are founded on humility, not the implicit arrogance of all this flag waving and self-serving pursuit of national interests. Love your country by all means -- I do -- but don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Patriotism isn't necessarily a good thing. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

a trip to the doctor

Ireland uses a system of healthcare based on the general practioner, which means that he or she is your first port of call when ill health visits, whatever form the ill health takes. Here is a typical visit in dramatic form.

11.20, Wednesday
patient (goes to reception at surgery): Hello, my name's Gerald O'Shea, I've an appointment at 11.25.
receptionist (smiling pityingly): Ah yes, so you have. Why don't you wait in the waiting room over there?
(patient enters waiting room where he sees fifteen bored-looking people trying to find interest in six-month-old Sunday supplements and Hello magazines)
12.43
receptionist: Mr O'Shea, the doctor can see you now.
patient: Thank you so much.
patient (entering doctor's surgery): Hello doctor.
doctor: Hello Mr (looking at his notes) O'Shea, how are you?
patient: Oh not too bad doctor.
doctor: And what brings you here?
patient: I have a sore throat. It's been like this for a few days now.
doctor: Let's take a look. (he looks into the patient's mouth and takes out a stick) Say 'ah'. (he pushes the stick down his throat)
patient (choking): Agh!
doctor: Ah yes, so you have. Well, we'll give you a course of antibiotics . Take one a day and don't drink any alcohol. (he hands a prescription to the patient and then goes to a cabinet and takes out a pill bottle, from which he extracts one pink pill) Take this one hour before going to the chemist.
patient: Yes, OK, thank you so much.
doctor (gesturing to the door): Well, goodbye now Mr (looking at his notes) O'Shea.
patient (leaves surgery and goes back to reception where he presents himself to the receptionist)
12.45
receptionist: That'll be fifty-five euro Mr O-Shea.
patient (hands two bank notes to the receptionist): Thank you for everything. Good bye.
11.00, Thursday
patient (takes pink pill and heads off to the chemist on foot)
12.00
patient (enters chemist and goes up to prescription counter; he hands over the prescription): I'd like these antibiotics, please.
chemist (gazes at the piece of paper): Yes, OK, did you take the pink pill.
patient: Yes, I feel very relaxed.
chemist (smiles and goes round the back to get the pills; when he returns he has various pieces of paper and a white box with the pills): Here they are Mr O'Shea. Take one a day and avoid alcohol. That will be sixty-five euro.
patient: (white-faced and with a distant look in his eyes he hands over four bank notes and staggers out of the chemist): Thank you so much.

[This story is fiction but is inspired by real-life events -- with the possible exception of the pink pill.]

Dublin Airport runs out of fuel

I think most of us who've known it long enough have little affection for Dublin Airport. It's badly laid out, especially the singularly awful baggage-reclaim area, and many of us have had various bad experiences there. I have vivid memories of the way customers were treated when they were doing extensive renovations a few years ago. It was mayhem. A special treat for what promises to be a very busy summer will be the erection of a large tent in a field somewhere to house those unfortunate enough to be delayed. I'm sure it will be delightful (will it have running water, we ask). Even so, running out of fuel in this day and age seems a bit extreme. But it happened last weekend. Flights from Dublin had to make landings in the UK to top up, and carriers heading into the great city found themselves making pre-emptive landings abroad for fear that Dublin airport wouldn't be able to facilitate their onward journey. Bad weather and a rugby match were blamed. I'm glad I wasn't one of the passengers thus inconvenienced. That would have been quite a blog. As it is, the opposition party Fine Gael is calling for a debate in the Dail. (There's more on this at http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=692400, though I expect this link to die before long.)

Back in Ireland


I'm just back from a week in Delaware showing my mother some of the sites, not least DC, NYC and Philly. Arriving back was hardly pleasant. The weather in Dublin was diabolical. The M50, the city's two-lane orbital motorway, was backed up for miles, and I just felt a sinking feeling the closer I got to home. Of course, arriving at the old homestead is always nice, and it's lovely to catch up with our family of five cats, but how I miss that American courtesy and respect. On the shuttle bus to the car park two successive (Irish) women obliged me by resting their bags on my foot, and one looked at me as if I was evidence of open sewerage when I remonstrated with her. I know this sort of thing can happen everywhere, but there is a difference in tone between Ireland and America, which almost consistently favours America. Beam me back, please!
(image from bbc.co.uk)

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

back in the USA

How nice it is to be back in Wilmington, DE! I'm only here for a few days this time, and the weather is almost Irish in its variability, but even so, it's good to be here. A few things have changed a bit.

I was all set to complain about unfriendly and aggressive Homeland Security immigration officials, but since we do all the security stuff at Dublin airport and the guy who processed me charmed the pants off me, I think I'll pass on this one. It was all very pleasant and easy, even if it sometimes seems a bit over the top.

The nation's great leader was on the box the other evening talking about invading Mexico, I think. The best way to deal with all these illegals is to intercept them at source, so pre-emptive strikes against towns and villages harbouring pockets of cheap labour, or should I say threats to the nation's security, can be neutralised before they set foot here. In truth though, I can't see how any country can tolerate such a porous boarder.

Petrol has now topped $3 a gallon (little gallons, it has to be said, not the mighty quantities we used to buy in Britain and Ireland). It seems that the Toyota Yaris will soon be strutting its diminutive stuff here and apparently the VW Golf can sometimes be seen. Even so, in the great malls in Center City, Philadelphia, they're still promoting big gas guzzlers, and looking at the roads generally, the SUVs, large saloons, and pickups seem to dominate. The golden egg, of course, goes to the company that patents the most effective alternative to the petrol engine and manages to get it out on the road out Toyota'ing Toyota. The rewards must surely be vast.

Philly is as pleasant a city as ever, though sadly Wanamakers, lately Lord and Taylor, is now empty, awaiting its new owner, so I wasn't able to hear or see the magnificent organ. Apparently it'll be back in action soon.

Washington DC today.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

no such thing as a free lunch


Twenty or thirty years ago, a dictionary was something you bought or went to the library to consult. If you wanted to write down and broadcast your opinions to a potential audience of millions, you spent vast sums of money on advertising in the press or waited till you were famous. If you wanted to see a detailed map of the route from Glasgow to York, the chances are you bought a map and figured it out from there. The idea that all these things could be completely free would have seemed comical back then, and yet here we are with vast resources at the tip of a broadband connection. Music, dictionaries, maps with satellite images superimposed, and free diaries where you can upload pictures, etc., etc., etc. I still find it amazing that we have so much for free (apart from the fairly expensive connection). Sure, I spend plenty of money on the Internet, but what I don't understand is how google.com and others make so much money out of it. google.com gives us no end of free facilities, including a staggeringly good search engine, maps, translation services, and so on, and yet we don't pay google.com a penny. How do they do it? How does it all work? Somebody please explain. (image from http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~russell01/pictures/cafe.html)

more on the assisted-suicide debate

The subject was discussed on Any Questions (BBC Radio 4) and three of the four panelists were opposed to assisted suicide. This was in contrast to the 80% of the population of the UK and over 70% of readers of The Church Times (!) who favour it. We needn't linger over the views of the Most Reverend Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff, for we are used to the dogmatism and cruelty of the Catholic church, but I was astonished that Claire Short, former high flier in the Labour Party, should have spoken against it. She is a humanist and believes that life is precious; therefore nobody should be entitled to feel that their quality of life has reached a point at which they would like to end it. It's because life is precious that some people would like to take control of it. Imagine being in the advanced stages of a terminal illness and being allowed to say goodbye on your own terms rather than at the mercy of a brutal, industrial machine that keeps people alive but gives no quality of life. Interestingly, the doctor who posed the question from the audience was quite clear in his view: he had treated hundreds of terminally ill patients and knew for a fact that there was no such thing as totally effective palliative care. He believed that in some cases the humane, compassionate, reasonable thing to do for the patient, if he or she wanted it, was to let them go with dignity.

Another perspective was given by a former doctor who phoned in to Any Answers. Her view was that the whole debate was unnecessary as it is perfectly easy for somebody to commit suicide using the pain killers and sleeping tablets provided for palliative relief. Failing that, any supermarket will provide the means. I wonder if that isn't simply ducking the issue and possibly running the risk that a loved one, who perhaps makes sure the pills are available, might be brought to trial for assisting in suicide. It has happened often enough before.

Another person who called in works at a hospice, and she was totally opposed to assisted suicide, arguing that nobody in her hospice would ever want this facility. Fine for them, they won't, but there will always be people who do. She also mentioned that her hospice caters, I think, for the whole of Oxfordshire and can take only 18 people at one time (in 2001 the population of the county was 605,488). Regardless of this, it seems to me that the central issue here is one of individual freedom. One should be allowed to make an informed choice, and it should not be considered an abandonment of the Hippocratic Oath if a doctor provides the means, for if he prolongs suffering, is he or she not also failing the patient?

the joys of Irish rural architecture

This picture discretely backs off displaying the full ugliness of these bungalows on the Cooley Peninsula, a lovely part of Ireland blighted by the dreaded infection known as 'bungalow bliss'. Whilst Ireland has several vernacular rural architectural idioms, most domestic building in the countryside since the war has been based on various bungalow styles that pay no attention to context, quality, or overall impact on the (visual) environment. Given that farmers are constantly getting planning permission to sell off fields for development of this sort (brown envelopes are said to help), Ireland, in spite of its underpopulation, is covered in repellant bungalows. The picture shows a cluster of them on the edge of Balagan, a village no great distance from Carlingford in Louth. The village is full of these bungalows. The pattern tends to be that original, ancient buildings are allowed to decay and new ones are built next to them or instead of them. The old buildings tend to be too small and uncomfortable for modern living. The sad thing is that even slight architectural adjustments of scale and design harmonise very well with the Irish countryside. Best of all are geometric designs that pay hommage to the tradition Irish cottage without reproducing its manifold discomforts. Sadly, there are still no wothwhile standards for building in the countryside (the towns we'll leave to another day), so the effect on the tourist or visitor is of unceasing, unrelieved ugliness and banality. I kid you not! Don't expect the picture-postcard view of Ireland trumpeted on tourist sites. Posted by Picasa

Boyne motorway bridge

The M1 is the Irish Republic's longest stretch of dual carriageway. It goes from Dublin almost to the boarder with N. Ireland. Whilst motorway construction rarely furnishes much in the way of eye candy, this magnificent structure, the bridge across the River Boyne, is a handsome exception. At night it is spectacularly lit in various blues and purples. (Another feature worth looking out for on Irish motorways is sensitive planting of the embankments.) Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 12, 2006

good news for gay couples in Ireland


It's far too much to expect gay marriage in Catholic Ireland, but the government is considering making better legal frameworks for gay couples so that they can enjoy the benefits non-gay couples expect and get. I didn't catch the detail. Whatever it is, I hope the government carries it through. Ireland is full of surprises these days, like the excellent no-smoking legislation, the first in Europe and much studied. Of course, gay couples should be allowed the full legal framework of marriage. Only those with a terribly poor opinion of marriage can seriously believe that allowing gay marriage will damage the institution of marriage. But this is a start and another example of the awakening of Ireland from the dark ages of British and then Catholic oppression. It's becoming a great place to be. (image from jason.similarselection.org)

why shouldn't we (end it all)?

In London their lordships in the upper house have blocked a government bill that would make assisted suicide legal in certain cases. This morning on the radio I heard a spokesperson for the disabled making a plea for just such an outcome. Later I heard a bishop saying that we had to consider the effect on society of assisted suicide, not just the interests of the individual. Curiously, as soon as we turn our attention to a sick cat or dying horse we suddenly regard it as immoral to prolong suffering. Yet when a perfectly sane and rational person who is dying a slow, agonising death wants a doctor to give him or her a way to pass away quickly and with dignity, he or she is denied it. There's no point in saying you can be made comfortable: some illnesses lead to such massive breakdowns in your body that you are certain to experience extremes of distress and trauma, regardless of pain relief. It is outrageous that these so-called moralists should continue to deny people the right to a merciful end when it is their express wish.

The Easter Parade

The Easter Parade, which marks the uprising of 1916 against British rule, was revived this year. I didn't attend but I became aware during the course of the morning of three single-engined military aircraft (above) and five light helicopters in military colours flying round in circles from the city to where I live in west Dublin. Was this a display of force, I wondered. If so, it wasn't very impressive. If it wasn't a display of force, what exactly was the point of it? Ireland has contributed much to UN missions over the years and expended huge effort on securing the boarder during the Troubles, but it is not a serious military power, so what exactly was the presence of these eight aircraft, a large part of the Irish air force, all about? Posted by Picasa

EMI's threat to our musical heritage

This is one of the four 78 rpm records, seven sides, that make up Kajanus's famous early 1930s recording of Sibelius's Fifth Symphony. If you want to hear it on CD head off to amazon.co.uk or .com and you will find a couple of releases by small labels such as Koch. The company that made the recording hasn't issued it on CD and probably never will: EMI has very limited interest in historic recordings of this sort. In spite of this, EMI is trying to browbeat the EU into retrospectively extending copyright on recordings back another fifty years. The present European copyright period is fifty years, which seems about right to protect the interests of the company that made the recording. In America the copyright period is much, much longer and historical recordings, especially of American material, have all but vanished there. If the EU extends copyright back the chances are that nobody will hear this historic recording of Sibelius's Fifth Sympony again for very many years, unless they have 78s or hang onto their Koch and Finlandia transfers. The reason why EMI wants to do this is to protect its interest in a tiny number of artists, not least the Beatles. I've no objection to them keeping the Beatles exclusively to themselves because there has never been a period when their albums have been out of the catalogue, but they evidently have no interest in Kajanus and so should not be given the right to take him away from us.

Howth

A treat for anyone visiting or living in Dublin is just a few miles up the DART line: Howth. The walk around the peninsula is wonderful at this time of the year. The picture shows the climax of the walk when you turn a corner and see Dublin Bay laid out before you, the Wicklow Mountains in the distance. As you wander back to the car park or DART you can pick up the freshest fish and chips you're ever likely to encounter. Posted by Picasa

trees in peril

Trees left to their own devices, perhaps with a subtle intervention from the tree surgeon from time to time, are the loveliest things. They look glorious and they help filter out the noxious gases created by cars and so on. The trees above had their full canopy until a couple of years ago and looked superb. As you see, they are raised up in a small park away from the pavement and road, and so could have been left pretty much to their own devices. Imagine my dismay when tree surgeons came along, commissioned by Dublin City Council Parks Dept, and cut away well over 50% of the canopy, leaving only the uppermost part of the crown. It was unnecessary. It spoilt the appearance of the trees and such vigorous pruning makes them more susceptible to disease. For those who live along this road, it reduces the ecological benefits of these trees. During the same brutal exercise at least two trees were cut down.

The only reason I heard for this drastic act of vandalism was that a resident who has a garden behind these trees complained to DCC about the number of leaves landing in his garden! Enough said. Another reason that has been brought up in the past, though it wasn't given on this occasion, was that children go into this small park and couldn't be seen by their parents, who feared there might be child molesters at loose in it. This one is priceless, because the only way around it is to remove every opaque surface in the world so that children can be seen all the time. One might start with their bedrooms, because children are infinitely more likely to be abused at home (98%?) by family or friends than by a stranger in a park.

One final reason for ruining or destroying trees in Ireland -- it's a national past time along with drinking and horse racing -- is that the country gets very little sun. Therefore anything that reduces the amount of sun falling on the ground, or rather onto the skin, is resented and has to give way. This explanation was given in an Irish horticultural journal, so it comes from a good source.

To put these remarks in context, Ireland has less tree cover than anywhere else in Europe, thanks originally to the prolific tree cutting of the English. However, in recent times a great deal of planting has focused on ugly, serried ranks of conifers, which are not only foreign to the soil, they look ugly and do little or nothing for local wildlife.

So far as the trees we do have are concerned, I just wish people would learn to love and value them and stop deforming them when it isn't necessary. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, May 11, 2006

the swastika finds an unlikely home

In the early days of electrical recording (recording with the microphone started in 1925), companies around the world used an American system of disc cutting patented in America by Western Electric. Every recording made involved a payment to the company, so London-based HMV, or The Gramophone Company, developed its own system, which both improved on the American original and avoided royalty payments. It came in around 1931. Every 78 cut had a unique matrix number engraved onto the disc between the playing surface and the label. This ensured that the master disc could always be found and distinguished. 78s made with the Westrex system as it was called used a triangle. HMV decided to use the swastika to distinguish the new, Blumlein system, as the picture above shows. Political considerations soon moved them to change it to a square marking. Posted by Picasa

more baffling planning decisions

I can't figure this one out at all. A private resident owns this land (he lives in the adjoining house) or at least has permission from somebody else who owns it to do as he wishes, subject to planning permission. It's on the bank of the Liffey, which flows through the village of Chapelizod.
There was some vegetation there a while ago, including a small tree or bush (if memory serves), but it's all been cleared away to make way for a car park for the owner's two cars, because he doesn't like parking on the street, which is what almost everyone else in St Laurence Road has to do. Imagine what it would be like if this principle were extended to everybody with a little plot of land. The ecological implications are ghastly. The impact on the 'visual amenity' (attractive appearance) of numerous areas around the country would be lethal. We need our green spaces. What is Dublin City Council thinking? How was it persuaded to such a perverse decision, I wonder. It seems that all our age can contribute to the local environment is constant degradation through apartment building, new roads, new road layouts, and so on. Most depressing. Posted by Picasa

Dublin planning is not for the squeamish


Unless you have a strong stomach, it's best not to spend too much time with Dublin City Council/Corporation's planning decisions since the war. The first picture shows the very best the city has to offer: the start of O'Connell Street. It's pretty much the defining view of Dublin in many guidebooks, weather.com, and elsewhere. Amazingly, these buildings were built in the 1920s according to a strict brick-alternating-with-stone template from the planners. They replaced Georgian buildings destroyed in a British navel bombardment a few years previously. This was shortly after partition when the Free State's economy was extremely precarious, the industrial wealth of Belfast having been incorporated into the province of Northern Ireland, which remained under British rule. It's hard to imagine the job done more handsomely. Just compare it to the horrible, out-of-proportion building that has recently been placed next to this group (on the right) to replace a defunct cinema of no architectural merit:



The building on the right is out of scale with the 1920s buildings and, unlike them, is cheap looking and shoddy. I just can't figure out how they thought this was a reasonable continuation of one of Dublin's most famous views. It seems that good architecture, good planning, and the post-war years simply don't go together.

Pearl Harbor (2001)


BBC decided to screen this risible film last night, so unable to resist one of the most compelling narratives of the war, I tuned in for a while. Michael Bay, the director, must be one of the clumsiest, most feeble in the business. How can anyone with such resources and such a story to tell create something so crass, trivial, and unconvincing. And then it dawned on me. This is an animated comic strip. That's why the characters are such caricatures. That's why the action sequences adopt a close, technicolor mode of presentation. Each little scene has one premise with no more subtlety or potential for development than the drawings in a comic strip. 'Wham! Bam! Agh!' Three or four Jap Zeros chase a car along a road and strafe it. Our superheroes duck down and all the bullets pass over their heads and the car continues on its course with a couple of holes in the windscreen. People sometimes praise the computer graphics, but I can't see why. Every scene that uses them looks as if it's using computer graphics. There's no sense of being-there realism. The presentation is absurd. Less is more in these circumstances. As to the acting of Ben Affleck, what can one say? He can't act. He has one-and-a-half expressions ranging from stupid to perplexed, and Kate Beckinsale is hardly much better. Whether regarded as a serious depicton of the raid, which reflected little credit on the professionalism of the US armed forces at the time, or simply as an action movie, this is dismal stuff. (picture from www.DarkMan.com)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Starbucks in Dublin

Oh, aren't we lucky. Starbucks has opened in Dublin. When I first visited the US over a decade ago the coffee shop seemed exotic and I even brought some beans home and preserved the packet as a souvenir. Then Brighton, my home town in England, started to get them; and then when I returned to the States they were all over shopping malls and motorway service stations. And now we have one just a stone's throw from Trinity College in Dublin. Hurray! Actually, no, go back home Starbucks. Dublin has superb coffee houses all over the city. Far better than what you offer. Starbucks helped regenerate coffee drinking in America, where people accepted any black, hot fluid with caffeine as coffee, but Dubliners have long since learnt to relish good coffee without any help from Fourbucks. It's not that it's a bad company or uninteresting. It's certainly not Macdonald's. It's just sad to see queues of people lining up to buy Starbucks when so many other cafes around the city have better product and nicer environments to enjoy it in. It's the time's plague when companies like this seek to dominate the world. Local is good; global is bad.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

how to ruin old buildings


One major reason why Irish towns and villages are less attractive than many elsewhere is the lazy approach to rendering the exterior walls of buildings that has been adopted throughout the country. These 17th and 18th century buildings in Chapelizod (near Dublin) have had a rough rendering applied to them, which obscures fine architectural detail. On the other side of the street is a substantial 18th century house that has figured in Irish literature. Underneath there are probably clay bricks, but all we see is a hideous rendering applied with little care or aesthetic sense. There is something seriously wrong with a country that can allow its architectural heritage to be ruined in this way. Sadly, the standard of restoration applied to major historical buildings, especially churches, is not always as high as one has a right to expect (the restoration of the Customs House in Dublin is an exception). Posted by Picasa

Monday, May 08, 2006

Dresden Neustadt


I wonder how many people visiting Dresden for the Baroque riches of its Altstadt know about the extraordinary area across the river known as the Neustadt. I found out about it because my hotel was on the edge of it, not far from the Elbe. Looking across at the lovely skyline of the old city I could see plentiful evidence of the destruction visited on the city in Feburary 1945, but when I turned around I could only see street after street of handsome 19th century buildings. Indeed, the area is huge; it's one of the best preserved such areas in the whole of Germany and is home to many of the alternativ Germans -- those who belong to car pools or ride bikes, buy organic shampoo, protest against the Iraq war, and generally behave in such a civilised manner that you have to love and admire them. I liked the area because there are several excellent shops selling vinyl at pretty decent prices. As you head further away from the old city and beyond the Neustadt you begin to see old industrial buildings and barracks from the pre-war years. The Allies hadn't targeted these areas at all: their demented rage was vented only on the area between the two main railways stations and out to the large park in the east, i.e. the old city, the Florence of the north. As I walked back to the river and followed the contour of the old city from the opposite bank, I tried to imagine American fighter aircraft strafing and killing nurses and civilians as they tried to drag people from the river (this account is disputed by some); I tried to imagine the Canadian airforce bombing the park (Grosser Garten), the third wave of this war crime, where people had taken refuge, scattering limbs into trees; I tried to imagine the vast tank of water near the Frauenkirche that people jumped into to save themselves from incineration but were then unable to get out of; I tried to imagine the period after the bombing when it seemed that the Frauenkirche had survived, but then it exploded in flames to join the rest of the holocaust. Allied prisoners-of-war joined in the grim task of digging the wounded and the tens of thousands of dead out of the ruins. They were just as stunned as the people of Dresden, who had mistakenly believed that the Allies would never destroy a cultural jewel of such insignificant strategic importance and annihilate so many defenceless people. Posted by Picasa

A visit to Glasnevin


There are plenty of parts of Dublin that fill me with little or no pleasure, havoc with the historic fabric of the old city having been so wilfully wrought in the post-war years. Glasnevin is a wonderful exception. This part of Dublin is very attractive in its own right with its numerous streets of fine Victorian houses plus, best of all, the National Botanical Gardens, as pictured above. At this time of the year the colours are really spectacular, especially the tulips. What's more, the ever-generous EU and Irish government have just finished funding the comprehensive restoration of the superb glass houses, which were built in the 19th century and resemble those at Kew in London (some later houses are soon to be restored, but they are nothing compared with these graceful Victorian structures). The Palm House was the last to be finished and it is now full of vast palms again. As if that weren't enough excitement for one day, when I arrived at the cafe at 11.00 for a pre-walkabout coffee, who should I see but Ireland's prime minister Bertie Ahern, sitting with three large men in pin-stripe suits and completely ignored by numerous other visitors sipping their coffee. I thought that was brilliant. (Bertie is a keen supporter of the gardens and is closely identified with several initiatives.) Posted by Picasa