You can't use your park! Europhobes!

monument

Originally posted by arcadegame2004
The anarchists must not be left to their own devices because otherwise, much economic damage could be caused to Irish business and Irish jobs, as well as our international reputation.

Honestly, what tabloid did you copy that line from?

Nuttzz

http://www.unison.ie/breakingnews/index.php3?ca=9&si=54616

Major traffic restrictions are being put around the Park, with the park itself off limits to the public from 5 o'clock on Friday until early on Sunday

A day and a bit, hardly the end of the world.

dangerman

oh get over it and stop moaning.

3 days disalowed access to phoenix park. so what.

next st. patricks day im going to start a thread here moaning about not being able to drive my car in dublin.

The heads of state of what is it, 25 nations are in town. This is more important than your running. Go run somewhere else and be thankful of the free progressive society we live in.

Next time there's a concert in phoenix park blocking ur running-route, i want to see you there with a banner saying 'down with this sort of thing.'

I'm so tired of this anti-anything-the-government-do. This is a happy day, 10 nations are getting the same chance to get the benefits we got all those years ago. You can't take and take, you've got to give back.

monument

Originally posted by dangerman
3 days disalowed access to phoenix park. so what.

next st. patricks day im going to start a thread here moaning about not being able to drive my car in dublin.

read on..

Originally posted by dangerman
The heads of state of what is it, 25 nations are in town. This is more important than your running. Go run somewhere else and be thankful of the free progressive society we live in.

A “free progressive society” and stopping a large amount of people from using a park for a few is a contradiction in terms.

[Added: Oh, don’t go down the “but they are voted by the people” road. They are, but they are not more important then the people. But they do love to waist money.]

Originally posted by dangerman
Next time there's a concert in phoenix park blocking ur running-route, i want to see you there with a banner saying 'down with this sort of thing.'

Do they close all of Phoenix Park for a concert?

Anyway, who pays for the concert?

How many people go to a concert v how many people attending the dinner at the park?

Originally posted by dangerman
I'm so tired of this anti-anything-the-government-do. This is a happy day, 10 nations are getting the same chance to get the benefits we got all those years ago. You can't take and take, you've got to give back.

If it’s a happy day, and if the EU is about its people, why are its people being restricted use of what is primarily a public park?

When will we get our fish back?

chewy

no matter what anti-capitlist protestors are planning the phoenix park would have been closed... it is 30 heads of eu states...

its the theat of terrorist attacks (whether you believe the likelyhood or not) which is closing off the park not any type of protestors....

whatever you think of the protestors i think you'll find it hard to argue that...


ps the army were on call on feb 15th were you there that day you were a possible threat to the state then


tbh honest the wombles storming farmleigh wasn't particularily serious you do know that the padding will make em waddling they could hardly storm anything

dangerman

A “free progressive society” and stopping a large amount of people from using a park for a few is a contradiction in terms.

since when is it a contradiction in terms?

they're closing a section of public land for a few days to facilitate an inter-governmental 'thing'.

I don't understand your argument.

Free progressive society = NO CLOSING A PARK EVER GOD DAMMIT ITS BIG BROTHER HOLY CRAP!!!????

Do you feel part of a police state cause phoenix park is closing? *really* ??? *honestly* ??? I feel sorry for you if you do. We have wonderful freedom under lots of tenants, and this minor inconvenience on quite a historical weekend is *not* by any measure a huge punch in the face for civil liberties of any kind.

It's not a take-to-the-streets thing. (unlike globalisation, fortress europe, etc. which a lot would argue *is* a take-to-the-streets thing, and are doing so, but thats another topic for another day) It's just a park, closed for a few days, to facilitate a celebration by the elected heads of governments. The sad thing is the whole atmosphere of terror all over the world (and i'm not going near the who-started-that issue) has caused such a dramatic security presence. There would have been security without al-queda and 9/11 etc. etc., but the whole international scene has shifted to ultra-security. I see it as: Why take any chances?

There are real civil liberties issues that people should and do question the government over. I just can't see this as being one of the key points to stand up and be counted on. I say let them have the park for 3 days, its the 25 leaders of 25 countries ffs.

[Added: Oh, don’t go down the “but they are voted by the people” road. They are, but they are not more important then the people. But they do love to waist money.]

I've no idea how much money is involved, but i do agree it's probably excessive - but thats historically been the case, pomp and ceremony is a big part of this sort of shindig.

Nuttzz

St Annes Park in Raheny is open and available for all your park needs over the weekend :rolleyes:

Morpheus

cost of security operation = €4,000,000

Spacedog

Originally posted by Nuttzz
St Annes Park in Raheny is open and available for all your park needs over the weekend :rolleyes:

Good, can't they have their summit there? better still in their 60's batman villan style slanty lair, where they can grow fat on chicken dinners, chuck their tongues, stroke their beards and laugh like the two girls from the philidelphia ad on speed!

dathi1

they're closing a section of public land for a few days to facilitate an inter-governmental 'thing'.

No you're totally wrong. They are completely closing one of the biggest walled public parks in the world. Not a section...THE WHOLE PARK, Disenfranchising 1000's of Dubliners who use the park without fail every weekend. This is a holiday weekend.

Free progressive society = NO CLOSING A PARK EVER GOD DAMMIT ITS BIG BROTHER HOLY CRAP!!!????

A free society means not having a eurocrat party shutting down one of the most important leisure time areas for the whole City. The park itself covers a massive area in Dublin. This is unprecedented

this minor inconvenience on quite a historical weekend is *not* by any measure a huge punch in the face for civil liberties of any kind.

so much for Prodi's inclusiveness.

I just can't see this as being one of the key points to stand up and be counted on.

yer right....its just a minor example of the typical pandering by our "anything u say Cox" government.
The public??? F the public we're the elite!! shut their park!!!!

Villain

I really can't understand why they need to close the whole park, especially as dathi1 has stated on a Bank Holiday weekend.

Doesn't make sense at all.

Moriarty

Here's a teacup for that little storm you have there, dathi1.

bonkey

Originally posted by dathi1
They are completely closing one of the biggest walled public parks in the world.

So they are closing a park. A park, which is a section of public land.

So they are closing a section of public land, for a few days.

Regardless fo the size of land, I fail to see how you can say that he is "totally wrong" to equate a publically-owned park with "a section of public land". Are you saying it isn't a seciton of public land? Its the entirety of public land? The majority of public land? Its not public land at all????

When you say "totally wrong", you seem to mean more "you're not describing this emotively enough for my liking", than "what you are saying is factually incorrect".

A free society means not having a eurocrat party shutting down one of the most important leisure time areas for the whole City.

Do you think it is a coincidence that this is being done on the same weekend that the largest security operation in the history of the state is being run in order to try and prevent any of the expected problems from May Day protests which just happen to co-incide with these Eurocrats coming in?

You clearly must, because apparently its the security arrangements you are objecting to, rather than those who generated the requirement for the security arrangements. Bear in mind that never before has the government had to implement such a strict security measure.....so its not the meeting itself which is the prime cause. Nope - its the nature of the threat.

The park itself covers a massive area in Dublin. This is unprecedented

Yes....so maybe you should give some thought to why it was done. Why did the government decide to p1ss off those thousands of people? Why did they instigate security the likes of which they have never had a call for previously.

The public??? F the public we're the elite!! shut their park!!!!

Well, if thats the best you can come up with in terms of understanding why they've done it.......I side with moriarty....and I've a nice molehill you might be interested in.

jc

dathi1

When you say "totally wrong", you seem to mean more "you're not describing this emotively enough for my liking", than "what you are saying is factually incorrect".

Well I could dull down the words I use to make them more JC correct but thats not what I'm here for.

Regardless fo the size of land, I fail to see how you can say that he is "totally wrong" to equate a publically-owned park with "a section of public land".

You're nit picking ...They're shutting down "our" whole park period.

You clearly must, because apparently its the security arrangements you are objecting to

arent there loads of Government buildings within the Dublin metropolitan area?

Why did the government decide to p1ss off those thousands of people?

better still....why didnt they ask??????????

Well, if thats the best you can come up with in terms of understanding why they've done it.......

I dint give an explaiation as to why they done it...I'm pointing out the whole lack of informing the public, ignoring the public....and then **** the public syndrome.

now back to work to pay my taxes to pay for this shower.

bonkey

Originally posted by dathi1
Well I could dull down the words I use to make them more JC correct but thats not what I'm here for.

Well, I prefer the term "logical" or "accurate" rather than "JC correct", but ok.

You're nit picking .

You're right. He said something completely and totally factually correct, and you pointed out he was totally wrong. I am such a nit-picker for pointing that out.....

They're shutting down "our" whole park period.

Yes. Thats what both I and dangerman said. But he was "totally wrong" when he said it, and I'm nit-picking when I said it.

Its no wonder you keep having to repeat it when you insist that everyone who doesn't dispute this fact is somehow incorrect.

arent there loads of Government buildings within the Dublin metropolitan area?

So you'd prefer, say, a half-square-mile or so* of "our" city - surrounding the building in qustion - shut down instead? Or do you think that buildings in the city-centre are so inherently more secure than buildings in Phoenix Park that the state could have not bothered with the largest security operaiton in its history?

Or...wait...we could have done what everyone complained about when Bertie originally proposed it and not had any international summits in Ireland during the Presidency. Of course, the public were up in arms about that too....but I'm guessing you fully supported his idea???

better still....why didnt they ask??????????

Because they don't have to, nor is there any mechanism by which they could reliably do so.

I dint give an explaiation as to why they done it

Ah. So you didn't say the following a few posts ago????

So its ok to disenfranchise Dubliners from using their own park for a euro summit?

Or am I nit-picking again by actually reading what you wrote and taking it to be an expression of your position?

jc

monument

Apologies for my post as with the scaremongering which has taking place in most of the media over the past few weeks a lot of the people who normally use the park would probably have stayed away.

Tuars

I think shutting down the park is a bit of an overreaction. I was in Madrid a few months back when the 'aid for Iraq' love-in meeting was on and many major heads of state were there, also Kofi Annan and Colin Powell.

They didn't shut down the park next door. In fact I walked right past the door of the building where the meeting was taking place (there were tanks and a heavy police presence, granted) and sat in the park and had my lunch as the dignitraries wizzed by.

I think it's mad that we compromise our liberties and our public space for fear of a couple of hundred wombles. It doesn't give me any confidence that there is an intelligent strategy in place for dealing with real threats.