Thomil's Random Ramblings

They say good things come to those who wait. As a regular Bus Éireann customer, I do not really agree with this statement, as far as the public bike scheme here in Cork is concerned, the phrase undoubtedly holds true, however. And it was about time, after all, lets face it, this country so far hasn't really been at the forefront when it comes to individual mobility. Ireland is caught in a love affair with the car, but doesn't have the cities to handle that, and it didn't have either WW2 or megalomaniac urban planners to correct that fact. The railway network has been reduced to a rump network, almost exclusively centred on Dublin. Urban public transport is dependent on buses, with the exception of the two LUAS lines in Dublin, lines that aren't even connected! And, again outside of Dublin, much of that public transport is utterly dependent on Bus Éireann, who still hold pretty much a monopoly.  However, it is not all doom and gloom. During the last years of the Celtic...

Now, I do have to admit to a certain bias here. I am a HUGE naval buff, as anyone who knows me in person will be able to confirm. Still, I woke up a few weeks ago to a news item that would have been major news in any country, much more so in a small island nation like Ireland. LÉ Niamh, an Offshore Patrol Vessel of the Irish Naval Service, supported by patrol aircraft from the Irish Air Corps and her sister ship Roisin, stopped and boarded the yacht Makayabella about 200 nautical miles west of Mizen Head. The ship was found to be carrying cocaine bales worth an estimated 80 million Euros. LE Niamh (P52) moored at Haulbowline Naval Base.  This boarding operation, described as a "textbook" operation by Irish Navy officials is undoubtedly a huge success, and highlights the professionalism of the men and women of the Naval Service. However, the operation also highlighted something else - The value of a well equipped and funded navy. And that, sadly, is something th...

Yeah yeah, I know, I know. Having a look around Cork, it is hard to believe that anything is being built. The Roads are full of potholes, paint is flaking of the facades, the old port is slowly but surely dying, the silos there are being torn down, and some of the prime developments in the city are still almost empty. Hell, it has gotten to the point where the opening of a new Lidl store in the city centre of Irelands second city has become major news.  To be fair, the economic collapse after the end of the Celtic Tiger years has left this city reeling, and stopped many projects dead in their tracks, including the planned development of a light rail network, or even adequate flood protection for the city centre. Any funds that were available were poured into the capital, Dublin, leaving Cork hanging in mid-air. However, over the last year or so, things have started moving again, though the start has been somewhat problematic. I'd like to illustrate some of these develo...

Looking back at the last one and a half years, I guess that I can safely say that I’m living the life that I always wanted. I work for one of the largest and most prestigious IT companies in the world, live abroad, and can afford not only some of the more expense products of said company, but also regular flights to my parents and abroad, so many in fact that even a frequent flyer card is paying off for me. The best part of the whole affair is the ease of my move abroad, to Ireland in this case. It isn’t the first move in my life, but it has by far been the easiest. No customs issues to deal with, no visa and residence permits to get, hell, not even a different currency to get used to. All in all, the advantages of a unified Europe, which I had seen since my school days in Austria, really became clear to me over the last year. Along with that came a very profound revelation: That it is possible to freely travel, trade, and settle within a continent who’s citizens had continually b...

All right, all right, I'll admit it. High Speed Rail has become something of a fad lately. It seems as if every country with more than two working steam engines wants to get in on the game, whether it makes sense or not. France's TGV network, as well as the Japanese Shinkansen have both become the "shining" examples of what other countries are trying to achieve. And while Germany is slowly working on connecting its previously disconnected High Speed lines, Austria and Switzerland are making the best of what topography they have been dealt, hell, even the US is slowly but surely putting its money where its mouth is with the California High Speed Rail project to complement its Acela Services in the Northeast Corridor, where is Great Britain, the home of modern railways in all of this? The shape of things to come? Eurostar Train on HS1 Photo by Paul Johnston, originally uploaded to Flickr, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 In a shambles, that's where it is....