JP said something on Twitter

ChewyLouie wrote: »

JP was on Twitter giving out about the market being closed over social distancing. I'd be very wary of going near any of his restaurants for a while.

https://twitter.com/mistereatgalway/status/1264222119317180416?s=19

Having seen his beard, I'm not sure how he expects a face mask to work.

Is it not fair to call out a double standard being applied to two different types of shops?

Certainly "being wary" of his restaurants is a bit extreme.

JoeA3 wrote: »

He's a polarising individual and has come out with some mad stuff in the past, he's certainly not afraid of upsetting a few snowflakes.

On this occasion I 100% agree with him. The "rules" are all over the place.

I like his restaurants, I'd love an evening out in Cava again, hopefully soon.

Hard to take you seriously when you come out with dog whistle sh1te like that.

<snip>. Obviously this is a very stressful time, particularly for those who make their income in the service industry.

I don't agree with his take on this at all. It's coming from a bit of a selfish place, in my opinion but I can understand why he feels the way he does.

It seems like the council may be working on allowing more outdoor seating, hopefully that will help a little.

Wompa1 wrote: »

I don't agree with his take on this at all. It's coming from a bit of a selfish place, in my opinion but I can understand why he feels the way he does.

It seems completely reasonable to me. There is different guidance from the WHO on social distancing (1 metre) and shopping centres seem to be held to a different standard again.

Considering what is feasible and realistic from a business perspective is important when in reality guidelines are set somewhat arbitrarily to begin with.

If the race is being at the mercy of pandemic decisions, then yes, the majority DO have a horse in the race. Depends what race you mean.

JP spouts off a lot and some of it I despair at, but his point about inconsistent rules grows stronger by the day.
It reflects where lobbying groups are strongest or financially more connected too. When rules make no sense to more and more people, sadly 'disobedience' for the ones that do will happen as well as people will lump all these decisions together.

His reasoning is faulty.

So because something isn't being practiced safely in some places, we should also let it be practiced unsafely elsewhere too?

odyssey06 wrote: »

On the other hand, if the limit isn't being observed indoors & outdoors, closing down the outdoor space shunts people into the more risky indoor space.

Nope. They went from a risky outdoor space back to their own homes.

Galway market is leisure shopping, not household essentials.

Good lord :eek: There's reasonable care and caution and then there is hysterical paranoia.

Another spike? Did we have a first spike?

Supermarkets have been doing a roaring trade since this started. I know people who own a SuperValu supermarket/hardware and its been like Christmas season for them for 9-10 weeks running. They employ 30-40 staff, all working throughout. None of their staff have contracted the virus. As far as they're aware, no customer has either. I don't recall any news reports of any clusters originating in supermarkets anywhere, nationwide. The queuing outside of supermarkets is tokenism. Once inside, people tend to loiter around like they always did... yet we don't hear of people dropping like flies in the supermarkets, do we?

The ultra cautious CMO himself has admitted the situation is largely nullified in the general community. Most new cases appear to be coming from clusters, whether its nursing homes or meat factories. The media will report that Galway has ~450 cases, but we also know that approx 85% of known cases nationwide have recovered. So lets say there's 100 cases in total in this county... 0.0004% of the county's population.

Hysterical reports of people trying to go about their normal business as best they can, whether it is shopping or exercise is completely over the top. Given where we are, with new case numbers dwindling and people's lives being on hold for 10 weeks now (and jobs lost, etc, etc), there has to be some balance and perspective applied to it surely.

Mathias Shy Receiver wrote: »

This is exactly how we undo all the work we have done to keep the virus contained. Now is not the time for complacency, it's time to completely drive the virus out. We should not imo have eased things at all yet, we should still be in full lockdown.

Think of it this way, we not have more cases and more deaths per day than when we locked down in the first place, how does it make sense to ease things when we are worse than when we started or how are people so naive as to think "we are over the worst". This is complacency and stupidity, I can't understand how intelligent people can not see this.

Making a deal about lives being on hold for 10 weeks?? Like it's incomprehensible how this is even mentioned when we are talking about live and death from the virus.

I, on the other hand, cannot understand how supposed intelligent people have lost all sense of reason and perspective and can see no alternative beyond locking themselves away for eternity.

People who don't align with your views are not stupid Nox. They have a different opinion to you, they have different perspectives and risk adverseness to you. They may have very real concerns in life that the current pandemic is massively impacting upon them, whether its personal, medical or economic. That does not make them stupid. This is something you seem to struggle to grasp.

Zero deaths reported today thankfully. We are emerging from this, the restrictions will continue to ease and I don't believe there will be second waves or spikes or whatever you want to call it. I'm sure you'll at least be hopeful that I'm right with that opinion.

Irish Praetorian wrote: »

As someone who only recognizes him from occasional puff pieces in the local newspaper, what exactly is the story here? Has he some deep track record of controversy I'm missing?

He caused some controversy years ago around Race week time, he made some derogatory remarks about the typical races crowd - people making last second cancellations to restaurant bookings, or worse - not showing up at all, urinating outside his premises, etc.

Mathias Shy Receiver wrote: »

This is exactly how we undo all the work we have done to keep the virus contained. Now is not the time for complacency, it's time to completely drive the virus out. We should not imo have eased things at all yet, we should still be in full lockdown.

Think of it this way, we not have more cases and more deaths per day than when we locked down in the first place, how does it make sense to ease things when we are worse than when we started or how are people so naive as to think "we are over the worst". This is complacency and stupidity, I can't understand how intelligent people can not see this.

Making a deal about lives being on hold for 10 weeks?? Like it's incomprehensible how this is even mentioned when we are talking about live and death from the virus.

The epidemiologists, who are also intelligent people, disagree. There is almost no community transmission now. A slow reopening combined with testing and contact tracing is the way to go. Ignoring the bigger picture of having a functioning economy is an easier mindset to take but ignores the practicalities of needing a working economy to unlock people into...

Smegging hell wrote: »

Hard to disagree with his frustration about people booking and not showing up, but yeah his means of expression tend to be a bit colourful. https://twitter.com/mistereatgalway/status/494953173296349184

I completely agree with his sentement here to be honest. People who screw over a restaurant like that deserve no sympathy. They are low margin businesses.

phelant wrote: »

What about people who screw in the restaurant. https://www.independent.ie/life/food-drink/food-news/ive-found-plenty-of-my-staff-having-sex-in-the-restaurant-irish-michelin-star-chef-jp-mcmahon-35088841.html
The stuff he says always has to be distilled down to remove the self serving propaganda.

TMI, JP!

More should be done about rents if the people who own the premises where these businesses who cannot operate are based are not giving them a break.

That's one area I think the Government has failed on. They just put it out in the ether that the banks SHOULD give mortgage relief. The banks then just pointed at their existing programs that don't offer much assurance. They also suggested there would be no evictions during this but there have been multiple businesses kicked out of their spaces by greedy sh1thead landlords.

Wompa1 wrote: »

Sure thing.

https://twitter.com/Joey_Cabray/status/1251080245974835201

Over the Top Rope Wrestling who cannot hold shows anymore (they usually hold shows in Dublin and Belfast mainly but have also had shows in Galway, Waterford, Cork etc.)

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/dispute-over-lease-sees-storehouse-of-ranelagh-cafe-removed-1.4257442

and also Nick's Coffee. They came in to start to dismantle the store without a court order. The cafe owner was told about the dismantling and plan by the landlord the first week of the lockdown when it would be impossible to move elsewhere.

Sorry, I tried to include the embeds but Cloudflare on the site said it was blocked.

Not Galway related

This thread is about JP and is about Galway.
Keep it local.

Wompa1 wrote: »

More should be done about rents if the people who own the premises where these businesses who cannot operate are based are not giving them a break.

I feel comm rents are way too high.

The EuroGiant on Eglinton street is 2,500 per week.

(Source: ad for building for sale)


Retail rents in Galway are higher than Edinburgh and Birmingham.