Thomil's Random Ramblings

Sometime last year, I wrote an article on this blog about a series of redevelopments and building projects slated to take place in Cork over the next couple of years. Just about all these projects have been greenlit and are funded. One Albert Quay is quite literally racing towards completion, Paírc uí Chaoimh is currently being demolished, much like the Cork team during the last All-Ireland championships, and the long saga of the events centre selection has finally come to a conclusion, with the winners BAM/Heineken wondering how the hell to make something of the mess the bidding process left behind. Hell, the city even survived the recent opening of Starbucks at 39 Princes Street without being immolated by the flames of eternal damnation, as promised by some cafe owners. Only Irish Rail is taking a page from the Deutsche Bahn playbook and has delayed their new entrance and approach road to Kent Station again and again.  They're heeeere - And unlike some people claim, it's...

Well, it looks as if my publication plans for this blog have literally been turned on their head. I had originally planned to publish an already finished article on the redevelopment for the Capitol Cineplex in Cork this week, followed by my trip report on Dublin sometime in the following week. However, an event that I stumbled into on Dublin’s O’Connell Street has changed all that, and those articles will have to wait a little while longer. It was the kick-off for Amnesty International’s campaign for a yes vote to marriage equality in the upcoming referendum on May 22nd. It is a sign of the times that Ireland, a country that until the 1990s wasn't far removed from being the catholic counterpart to the Islamic Republic of Iran, has moved so far ahead in such a short time that this referendum is actually possible at all. Still, as remarkable as that fact may be, there is still a long way to go.  But back to the event on O’Connell Street for the time being. I had spe...

There are few things that really get my blood boiling. I may curse a bit, spew out a few more or less original wishes for damnation, but all in all, I calm down relatively quickly. Years and years of working in customer service do that to you. One of these few things for it, however, is hypocrisy, and just last weekend, Cork got a full load of it straight in the face, compliments of the government of Enda Kenny, namely Minister for Transport, Paschal Donohoe.  The issue was the ongoing malaise at Cork International Airport, the second largest airport in Ireland, which has been in constant decline ever since the start of the crisis. From an all-time high of 3.71 million passengers in 2008, passenger numbers have dwindled to just about 2.14 million passengers in 2014. While the airport had in the past seen service from airlines such as Jet2, Easyjet, British Airways or Wizzair, only Ryanair, Aer Lingus, as well as Aer Arann (Now operating as Stobart Air), the latter oper...

The people of Cork have traditionally been hard to control. Multiple Irish governments will confirm that. However, while this tradition may show itself today only in the non-payment of property taxes or water charges, the effects in earlier times were often quite drastic. The people of Cork flat out denied the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which paved the way for the Irish Free State, because the independence granted to Ireland didn't go far enough for them. One of the fathers of Irish Independence, Michael Collins was killed by these anti-treaty forces here in Cork, which is bitterly ironic, considering that he was a Cork man himself. Back in the 16th century, though, the people here in the southwest of Ireland didn't just limit themselves to stoking conflict here in Ireland, they were actively engaged in agitating against the British crown, and supported numerous rebellions and coup attempts, especially after the British had renounced Roman Catholicism. It is from these tur...