News and views on Greystones harbour and marina [SEE MODERATOR WARNING POST 1187]

Opinel wrote: »

I've just joined Boards and stumbled on this thread. Good discussion (although not going to go through all 51 pages of it!).

I'm from Greystones. I'm getting a little fed up with GUBOH. They've done quite well so far but they seem to be getting into a tit for tat with the Mayor. I think they should stay out of it and concentrate on the end goal. What do you think?

Interesting comment. Whenever two sides squabble, third party observers often have difficulty separating out the "good" from the "bad", and brand both as equally at fault.

Yes, certainly the "Now p**s off, boy!" comment, attributed to Basil Miller who is leading GUBOH, was not useful. But put that in context with the Mayor's view that:

a) this is entirely a "rowers issue, a sailors issue, a divers issue, a scouts issue, a fisherman’s issue and a boater’s issue" (see his web site) - the other 95% of Greystones people have no say,
b) parents, children, grandparents, siblings, people who love walking in harbours and watching the sea, have no say,
c) anyone who is a "blow-in", as in here less than the Mayor has been here, has no say,
d) anyone who has roots here, who lived here for all of their lives, but who now live elsewhere but nevertheless may come back, has no say,
e) businesses who operate in Greystones, have no say,
f) tourists, visitors, other interested parties, have no say.

It appears that the only people who count, in the Mayor's mind, are those who directly will use the harbour in the restrictive sense of a harbour. And, strangely enough, one of those groups is the Greystones Motor Yacht Club. If you haven't heard of it, that's because it was only formed 2 years ago, and guess who is the Vice-Commodore...??? No prizes for getting the right answer.

And, to cap it all off, it is reported that the Major said 2 years ago that he was going to "throw his hat in the ring" to become the harbourmaster...

You can pick your jaw up off the floor now and place it back in your mouth...

My metric for measuring people is whether their actions are greater than their words. With GUBOH we have had more serious movement over the last few weeks than over the last year or more with our Mayor.

Most of us really don't give a damn about the Major's posturing and strutting - we see it for what it is - we just want our harbour back, to enjoy, to walk around, to view as we walk from Bray along the cliff path, to be proud of when our friends come and when tourists visit Greystones. Yes, we all want those who use the harbour for water activities to enjoy it also, but the Mayor's view that the rest of us do not count really, really, really, pisses me off!