The Spike

My thoughts on the spike/spire/thing

1. It cost too much. In all fairness it may be minimal in comparison to what the government has spent but it is still alot of money. Who here would be set for life with that sort of cash?? It could have been spent on something else that might lead us to think that ok this gov isnt that bad after all.

2. Its ugly, grey, pretty bland and has no purpose other than to get the toursists to gawk at it. Not a very good reflection on Ireland, IMO. Pointless waste of money. Take a look at the two highest flag poles in Ireland at the entrance to UL. They have a purpose, look good, are lit up well and fit very well into their surroundings.

3. Knowing Ireland and the people that run this place. O Connoll street may be finished in 50yrs time. And then they will still proberally want to dig it up for some phone lines, pipes etc. Look at the Court House in Cork. How long has that had the nice white cardboard box around it?? Looks very attractive, indeedy.

rant over.

Rgds,
A.

actually we have one of the lowest income tax rates in europe at 20% but we have high indirect taxes.

but i agree with you it was a waste of money that could have been better spent.

wonder if it is lighting proof as it is now the highest thing in town

Pete: shut up. I'll have none of your Irish cynicism. Any time a major public work is built the typical Irish reaction is just like this. It makes me sick. What on earth makes you think that the Spire was badly constructed, badly earthed or whatever? The only hitch in the whole plan has been the light at the top - this hitch occurred because the whole lighting system is a prototype. There's nothing else like this in the world. Isn't that something to be proud of? Last time I heard this nonsense, it was people on the bus from Dundrum saying that the Luas bridge was built too low and the buses couldn't get under it. It didn't occur to them that they were actually on a bus at the time and that this was a major public work, there was no way anyone would ever make such a stupid mistake.

What exactly is so bad about the Spire? Why shouldn't we demand a more attractive city? Why shouldn't we demand a higher quality of living in Dublin which is apallingly low compared to most other EU cities?

I'll tell you why. Our city hospitals are overcrowded because of chronic traffic problems, dangerous drivers, pollution, overwork, unhealthy urban lifestyles, street violence. Our hospitals are understaffed because of an utterly inappropriate taxation system and massive misallocation of funds. But, sure, why would we even want to pay tax when we never actually see any positive results?

The whole point of the Spire, as I see it, was to say that Dublin is now a capital worthy of world class architecture. It was supposed to be something that all Dubliners could be proud of - not proud of in itself, but proud of the city as a whole, with the Spire focusing that pride on something wholly new, wholly our own. I didn't expect this to happen, anyway - I expected public outcry and cynical condemnation from many people. As a nation, it seems we have no taste and *no* imagination.

I think it's so important for us to be proud of Dublin but we, as a community, haven't given ourselves any reason to be proud of it. Everything we see around us makes us think the opposite. Traffic, litter, skangers fighing in the streets, disgusting odours, massive commute times, pollution - yet we never demand better. Why?

Irish people constantly underrate the *need* for Dublin to "look nice". We demand it of our countryside so why not our cities - they're environments too. In fact, we should demand it more because quality of life is so much worse in the city.

Of course, this all costs money. Maybe we can't measure the positive benefits of the Spire, or planting a few dozen trees on O'Connell St. the same way we can measure the benefits from an electro-cardiogram but that doesn't mean we shouldn't spend money on city beautification. In fact what it means is we should demand more form our politicians, starting with a radically overhauled taxation system which increases transparency, increases revenue and makes it impossible for invisible taxes and misallocation of necessary funds to occur. Above all, we should tax the rich more and tax the poor less. We have to learn to be more responsible to each other as a nation.

It's going to take time for us to realise this and, as has always been the case here, we'll only change when it's absolutely necessary. That's a shame because we're going to have to learn to start thinking into the future a bit more, too.