Living City Initiative Offers New Hope for Drogheda.
APPARENTLY Drogheda is to be included in the Living City Initiative which is just as well because for some time it has now been on life support.
The Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris made the announcement which is somewhat ironic as his government has repeatedly denied Drogheda the right to city status.
As this long established regeneration programme is already operating in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway it might reinforce Drogheda’s claim for that status.
The initiative will allow property owners in designated parts of Drogheda to apply for tax reliefs to refurbish or convert residential and commercial buildings. This includes the conversion of vacant upper floors and over the shop premises into homes.
The programme’s overall aim is to revitalise town city centres by addressing vacancy and underuse of buildings and boy does the centre of Drogheda need a complete revamp.
But it wasn’t always that way and there was a time in the not too distant past when Drogheda was a vibrant prosperous town with West Street often referred to as “The Golden Half Mile”.
Its main thoroughfare had its own character with busy shops and pubs and was a real town centre with a certain vibe about the place which I fear will be harder to restore than the derelict buildings.
If a British visitor walked over West Street I doubt if he or she would find anything to distinguish it from Hull or Rochdale or indeed any northern English town adorned with the ubiquitous nail bars and vape shops.
For those who remember the way it was it is harder to accept what their city has become in recent years, in essence Drogheda has to some extent lost its soul.
Anyone looking through the old photographs of West Street in its glory days on Drogheda Down Memory Lane will get a glimpse of what we had and what we lost.
This column was prompted by an old photo I found at home of the once magnificent Abbey Cinema which graced West Street until it was unfortunately destroyed by fire in the late 1960s.
Its art deco features made it a standout structure and had it survived would now be a listed building and deemed an architectural gem from the 1930s.
It is hard to accurately define when the town centre’s decline began, some maintain it was the loss of the Borough Council, but for me it was in the mid 1970s and the construction of the so called bypass that dissected Drogheda like a stake through its heart.
The old Gate Cinema was the first to go along with a huge slice of St Dominic’s Park then, in what was the one of the foulest acts of municipal vandalism in modern Irish history, Medieval John Street was bulldozed.
The Bullring was next in their sights and the Caterpillars then advanced on ancient James’s Street demolishing the Brown Derby pub on the way and then flattening the Diamond and Dublin Gate Bars.
The Brown Derby pub which was demolished in the mid 1970s.
Hundreds of years of Drogheda’s history was obliterated to make a four-lane dual carriageway bypass that wasn’t even a bypass as it ran through the centre of the town.
John’s Street which was bulldozed in the 1970s
This act of wanton destruction did in a couple of years what the River Boyne couldn’t do in centuries…split the town in two.
We can only hope that the Living City Initiative breeds new life in the centre of Drogheda and that the town’s soul has not been fully lost, just mislaid somewhere in the rubble of John’s Street.
RTÉ Jingle Shake-Up Sparks Listener Backlash
“IF it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” goes the old saying, but bosses at RTÉ Radio 1 appear to have taken a different approach after replacing the jingles on some of their flagship programmes.
The familiar tunes that once introduced shows like Morning Ireland and Liveline have been replaced, with critics describing the new sound as a dull and uninspiring alternative to what listeners were used to.
Broadcaster Oliver Callan remarked that the new style made him feel as though he was “presenting Euronews at three o’clock in the morning,” while the music used for John Creedon’s late evening programme has also drawn criticism for not matching the quality and tone of the show itself.
Greg Malocca, a composer with Dublin based audio post production studio Egobo, described the new jingles as “very unimaginative,” telling the Irish Times “they’ve totally lost their Irish identity. There’s nothing Irish about it.”
The changes have sparked debate among listeners, with many questioning the decision to replace long standing and recognisable programme themes.
Jet Ski Activity on River Boyne Raises Concerns
THERE have been a number of complaints about the noise caused by up to a dozen jet skis speeding up and down the River Boyne last weekend.
I have some sympathy for those who are bothered by the noise but I’m even more concerned about the effects they are having on marine life in the river.
The Boyne Estuary is a designated bird sanctuary yet these machines, which are mostly launched at Mornington, must pass directly through it on the way to Drogheda during the breeding season.
When I used a jet ski back in the day the law required us to stay at least 300 meters from the shoreline, except when launching, so we stayed in the sea off Bettystown and Clogher.
Yet it appears that jet skis are now in the Boyne in the centre of Drogheda just a few meters from the quayside and it appears that the laws are being ignored. Where’s the Coastguard?
Ryder Cup Tickets Not for the Faint Hearted
A MONKEY for a ticket to the Ryder Cup golf tournament which takes place at Adare Manor in Co Limerick in September of next year?
You would want to be a serious golf fan to hand over €500 for a ticket to the legendary event, especially when it’s almost impossible to get accommodation within 50 kilometres of the course with paying a small fortune.
For those not familiar with the term “monkey” it’s Cockney rhyming slang for 500 and likely originates from 19th-century British India where 500-rupee notes featured a primate.
Given the choice, this monkey would use the €500 for a holiday in Fuerteventura and watch the golf on TV in a pub.
