Campaign comes to life, economy shows sign of life, casino dies and trees on the quays

26th September, 2011

The political season is back with a bang- and so is my blog.

The Presidential campaign is igniting the public imagination as none of the commentators thought it might. As a democrat, I am delighted that so many candidates are in the field. As a Fine Gaeler, I am delighted our candidate is one of Gay Mitchell’s stature. I’ll be helping Gay campaign on a positive platform but I should say that I think there is just too much muddy water to make a Martin McGuinness candidacy viable.

Away from the Presidency, the CSO’s positive news that the economy is growing will come as little comfort to those families that continue to be impacted by unemployment, forced emigration and negative equity. The figures do show, however, that the Government has stabilised our economy and the potential for an improvement in living standards is there. Unfortunately, the European and global situation grows grimmer by the day. Unlike 2008, we have fair warning that a recession is a possibility. Leaders around the world must make sure they act on that warning.

And finally, Michael Lowry’s daft casino idea has been killed off by Alan Shatter. With that Tiger-esque hubris behind us, I was delighted to see the proposal for Trees On the Quays. The idea, from Mahoney Architects, is to transform the concrete shell on North Wall Quay that was originally intended to be Anglo Irish Bank’s HQ into a “virtual park” – a kind of high rise green space where all of us can gather for public events, relaxation and so on.

Green shoots anyone?