Theme Park Ireland?

mollydolly271 wrote: »

dawsons in bray is closed now???:mad: yeah defo need a water park and an ice rink we should have a eire disney????

Welcome to Jurassic park! *Jurassic Park Overture, by John Williams*

I think a theme park would be a very good idea for the country. However, a few requirements would have to be met for it to work.

• It would have to be built next to the two main railway lines, Rosslare/Bray to Maynooth/Sligo via Connolly and Kerry/Cork/Galway/Westport to Dublin Heuston (post-Transport 21 it would continue onto Balbriggan, Drogheda, Dundalk and Belfast). Perhaps, it would be located in north-west Dublin or Kildare.
• It would have to be beside or near the M50, along one of the connecting motorways.
• Irish Bus and Dublin Bus would have to provide a frequent service to the attraction.
• There would only be one of it's kind in the country. More than one would lead to a situation where supply exceeds demand.
• The park would have to be situated on quite a considerable land mass (perhaps between 500 and 1000 acres and nowhere over). By doing this, the theme park could be devided into many sub theme parks. Here are a few suggestions for sub theme parks: a scaled down replica of the Las Vegas Strip, a Disney style theme park, a water park, a concert venue and an ice rink.
• At least one ride would have to exist somewhere in the overall theme park that would outclass the Kingda Ka in terms of shock value.
• The park wouldn't be built all at once. It would be built in phases to grow with demand.
• Above all, it would have to be world class.

Mosney was open for decades which suggests that there is a demand for a theme park in Ireland. It was quite a decent size at 200 acres. It was built around the time when the countries population reached rock bottom. Today, the country has roughly twice this population and it's still growing despite the recession. The Irish Tourist Industry Confederation predicts a rapid growth in foreign tourists from 6 million in 2006 to 10 million by 2012. Since 2006, this has been going according to plan as in 2007 there were a million more foreign visitors. I don't want to speak to soon as 2008 figures could see a drop.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding the ill-fated Vega City proposal. At the time, I was annoyed at Fingal's decision to reject it. In retrospect, I can understand their decision. The size of the park was a wopping 2500 acres in size thereby dwarfing the Phoenix Park and was expecting an unrealistic 36 million visitors annually. As well as that, the developers were reluctant to disclose the backers of the project. There was also a mind blowing €7.5 billion being spent on the project. Therefore, the risks were astronomical. A small part of me still asks had the project been given more time, would the proposal have been less vague?

It is still important to realise that Mosney was a huge success. Just because Vega City was rejected does NOT mean there is no demand for a theme park. There is a huge need for one. The bullets points are just recommendations.

This may seem off topic for a few lines. However, I will proceed. There seem to be a lot of road accidents in this country. A lot of these accidents seem to be caused by people joy riding. I amn't condoning this for a minute but that's beside the point I am about to make. This is just a theory of mine. The fact that there is an abundance of joy riders in this country could be evidence of thrill seekers. Keep in mind the text in bold. Could this be because we have been deprived of thrill rides (such as rollercoasters) in this country due to a lack of theme park (s)?

To my next point. I am Irish. Now, I know that a lot of people who binge drink frequently in Ireland have often claimed that it is because there is nothing else to do in the country. While a large element of these claims are excuses, a certain element of these claims hold true. It is a fact that there is limted choice in Ireland when it comes to going out. From my point of view it boils down to the following activities: Stay at home, sports (rugby, football etc.) and fitness (gym activities), work, shopping, school, cinema (the odd time), countryside visits and drink. Very little emphasis has been placed on the entertainment industry besides concerts (where drink is also consumed), theatres, casino's (albiet spread out) and cinemas.

There isn't exactly a tourist attraction in Ireland that would grab the attention of the national or foreign visitor. A huge portion of foreign visitors are interested in the monumental and not the mundane. The Spire of Dublin doesn't count as nobody can make any productive use out of it as it is inanimate. While thrills and spills aren't exactly productive, they are experiences that people will remember for the rest of their lives. In some situations, tourists revisit a country to relive these experiences. In turn, this brings money into the country.

There are a lot of historic regions in the Irish country side which a lot of nationalists would claim is what makes Ireland unique. However, a lot of countries abroad also have historic regions some which are similar to those seen in Ireland. This hasn't stopped other countries from building theme parks. For example, France is always going to be famous for it's vine yards, Eiffel Tower, baguettes and it's romantic language. The fact that Disneyland was built just outside of Paris didn't dilute the aformentioned attributes of it's culture. With out a doubt, Ireland is always going to be known for it's pub culture (Not necessarily a binge drinking one) and countryside character. Also, folklore and celtic music such as Clannad, Enya, The Pogues and the Dubliners. Similarly to France, a theme park isn't going to affect this image. It can only add to the "craic".

Furthering on this point, some may feel that Ireland's lack of a theme park makes it unique for the culture. This philosophy is stupid as it only limits the choice of activities in the country to shopping, countryside visiting and drinking (especially for foreign visitors). Other people claim that it would detract from the character of surrounding areas even if these areas are very mundane and bleak. There is a saying that goes that "variety is the spice of life". This saying is very true as uniformity (in architecture particularly) can be seen as somewhat boring. Anyway, getting back to theme parks. The whole point behind theme parks is that it allows people to escape a lot of the hardships of everyday life.

A huge amount of people say that Ireland's poor weather conditions would put visitors off going to a theme park. This can simply be avoided by providing shelter at places where people tend to accumulate such as major park attractions such as rollercoasters. Shelters would also be provided at the queues where people can be waiting up to an hour to get on the ride.

Rb wrote: »

What we need is casinos.

+1 for the casinos:)