The Banks of my Own Lovely ... Venice ?

Perhaps chastened by last week's rebuke, Finbarr Cullen has stayed away from politicians this week. Instead, he protests at a proposal "by the Cork Chamber of Horrors - sorry, Commerce" to drain the south channel of the River Lee in order to construct a light railway:

...the Lee to become a railway track ! The Venice of the South ! Where we sported and played in the green leafy shades, stroke-hauling salmon and catching bile-filled mullet - to disappear in the name of progress ! Not on, boy.

I thought the Venice of the South was in Italy, but the rant is otherwise splendidly unanswerable, as I am sure you will agree.

Well, maybe one dissenter could be my old friend - if he will allow me to call him that - Theo Dorgan, to whom Finbarr applies the insulting sobriquet of Great Brain of Cork. That it is intended as an insult is put beyond doubt not only by the context ("recently spotted junketing ..." - another give-away word - " ...to Jerusalem, despite an international boycott") but by the separate reference to "Fintan O'Toole, Ireland's leading intellectual (excluding our own Theo Dorgan, of course)".

Update on Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 08:11AM by Fergus O'Rourke

Theo Dorgan and I have been FaceBook friends for some years now, so I suppose that he has allowed me to call him my friend.

Park and Ride

I have added a link to the Park and Ride timetablehere

Park and Ride

I have become a regular user of the City Council's Park & Ride service from Black Ash near the Magic Roundabout - more properly the Kinsale Road Roundabout - on the City Link road. It is a purpose built facility with waiting room and toilets and plenty of parking space. The service costs €5 per day for a car and up to 4 passengers, though as it happens there is no charge this week for some worthy reason that I cannot recall. Buses depart roughly every 15 minutes - more often at peak times - and make the journey in about 5 minutes, except at peak times.

The exception is important.

At peak times, the buses can be very crowded and can be considerably delayed by traffic.

By carefully choosing times, though, it can be a most impressively quick service for commuters.

I especially like the fact that I can use the N25 ring road to access it but dodge across Tramore Road/Pouladuff and down to Jail Cross if conditions or my needs so indicate. (The N25 is very prone to congestion at peak times, and I live a long way from it anyway).