Anyone listening to George Hook?

nobeastsofierce

Following up on his forum in Sligo, George is talking to Jude Devins and Jimmy McGarry about the depedestrianisation of O Connell St.

Missed the forum last night, was anyone there?

emcc

McGarry made a right fool out of himself.

itac

emcc wrote: »

McGarry made a right fool out of himself.

What did he do?
I've been trying to follow this story via ocean & weekender online, as well as here and Facebook. Is there any sign of them having suddenly gotten some cop on and waiting til after Xmas to re-open it?

the_wabbitt

you will do very wel to follow it on ocean fm. The only programe that would carry thi sis the Niall Delaney show. Sadly they are more interested in promoting the Cancer Debate and the Anti establishment debates rather than this item.

mickeyfitzray

itac wrote: »

What did he do?
QUOTE]

Basically he sold our town down the river for the sake of winning an argument. The towns own Mayor described it's town centre as "dark, badly lit, dilapidated and unsafe." I was dumbfounded. I wrote him an email and got a reply, will post later.

mickeyfitzray

My letter to Jim:

Dear Jim,

I refer to you as Jim because I do not regard you fit to be mayor and I no longer recognise you as a representative. How could I? You went live on National Radio yesterday and basically sold our town down the river. To think that a Mayor of a town would refer to the town centre as dilapidated, dark and unsafe was astounding. A town that, at this time more than ever, could do with a boost. Instead you criticised it for the very things that YOU are responsible for. It's the council that is responsible for the upkeep of O'Connell Street and you condemned it as shabby.

Inept is not a strong enough word for this Jim... idiocy would be much closer to the mark. The scary thing is you probably don't feel any shame for your remarks. That for me indicates a lack of responsibility and a lack of belief in Sligo... from it's own Mayor. It would actually be hilarious if it wasn't so serious. At times I was reminded of the Mayor in the film Blazing Saddles... a farce! It's one thing being a realist in describing O'Connell Street... it's another to grossly exaggerate the condition of the street just to win an argument.

This is without even mentioning the blatant lies... turning a blind eye to traders? Whose interest are you actually representing Jim? It's certainly not the people of Sligo. You've dug yourself a very deep hole and you just seem to be digging deeper and deeper.

Yours Disgustedly,

Simon

___


Dear Simon,

I thank you for your comments. In relation to my Newstalk Interview- we did not pedestrianise O’Connell Street, we simply closed it to traffic, even the bollards in place are manual rather than automatic. The street is not open to Garda patrol Cars at night and if a serious incident should occur the Street is ill-equipped to deal with it. Almost every door I knocked on during the recent elections in the East Ward complained about the continued closure of O’Connell St and how disenfranchised they felt having to go the whole way around the town to visit the hospital or the IT. The decision to re-open the Street was taken by the whole Council with the sole objective of doing the right thing by our Constituents.

As to your comments regarding my portrayal of the town in a bad light- I feel you would do well to remember that the promotion of Tourism in this region has consistently been on my Agenda. Most recently I got a motion passed which agreed that the local Authorities renew our membership of the County Sligo Tourism Board. I am fighting for better investment in tourism infrastructure continually and have welcomed successfully Visitors such as the Canadian Ambassador to City Hall during my term as Mayor.

I am extremely proud of my town. I would ask that you remember to treat people with courtesy and respect regardless of differences of opinion.

Regards,

Cllr Jim McGarry
Mayor of Sligo

___


Dear Jim,

A number of points here:

1) Even now you are tryin to cloud the issue with definitions of pedestrianisation. You know damn well that when we talk about pedestrianisation we are talking about the street being closed to traffic so please do not insult my intelligence.

2) If the street has been ill equipped to deal with emergencies for the past three years then why in all that time has a traffic plan not been drafted with ideas or suggestion about different routes for the people of the East Ward.

3) National radio listeners are most certainly not aware of your efforts to promote tourism in this region (which is your job anyway), but as of yesterday they are most certainly aware that the Mayor... THE MAYOR OF OUR TOWN... thinks the town centre is dilapitated, dark and unsafe. Nice bit of promotion there Jim. You basically likened our street to a hole. Are you at least going to admit that you were exaggerating?

4) Regarding the issue of respect. This is not a "difference of opinion" matter. I know quite a few people who share your stance on O'Connell Street and I have always listened to them and taken their opinions seriously and with respect. But how DARE you ask respect from me after

-continuosly ignoring the will of the majority of the people of Sligo
-selling our town down the river on national radio for the purpose of winning an argument
-lying on national radio about the state of the town and the traders
-discrediting all efforts made by people who tried to gauge the true opinion of the town through polls, petitions and other means

That last point is especially infuriating. It was your job... no... your OBLIGATION to use innovative means to include all voices in the development plan. It's called the code of conduct. When it became obvious the Councillors weren't going to do this properly people made the effort themselves. And you made fun of those efforts live on national radio.

How dare you ask for respect and how dare you be so petty as to ask for respect after betraying our beautiful town,

Simon.

Wester

mickeyfitzray wrote: »

My letter to Jim:

Dear Jim,

I refer to you as Jim because I do not regard you fit to be mayor and I no longer recognise you as a representative. How could I?

How dare you ask for respect and how dare you be so petty as to ask for respect after betraying our beautiful town,

Simon.

I agree that O'Connell Street should remain closed to traffic but your letters to the mayor were discourteous and overly aggressive. You could have made the exact same points in more moderate language. As is stands, you've made it very easy for the mayor to dismiss your points out of hand. Whatever you think of the mayor personally, and I'm no great fan either, he is a public office holder and should be accorded a certain level of courtesy.

mickeyfitzray

I appreciate your comments Wester and I know where you're coming from. I probably would have thought the same thing if I had seen the letter by someone else. However I think I should put this into context.

I have spent the past two months emailing Councillors putting my points across to them as have a number of other people. My emails to them were very courteous and respectful of their position. However, having seen the way certain Councillors in particular behaved and treated their constituents I have no regrets about my email to the Mayor.

The last straw however was the radio interview. It was stupid and disrespectful. This man does not deserve our respect just because of his position. In fact, he deserves disrespect for the way he has brought shame on that position.

Wester

mickeyfitzray wrote: »

I have spent the past two months emailing Councillors putting my points across to them as have a number of other people. My emails to them were very courteous and respectful of their position. However, having seen the way certain Councillors in particular behaved and treated their constituents I have no regrets about my email to the Mayor.

Put in context, I can see your point. I guess my main argument was that it's easy for Jimmy McGarry to push your letters to one side and dismiss them, although you probably feel at this stage that he'd do that anyway. The O'Connell St. fiasco is very frustrating, and I don't think the council appreciates the level of public anger about it. Looks like it will reopen because John Gormley and the Dept of the Environment have said this morning that they will not intervene.

mickeyfitzray

Wester wrote: »

I guess my main argument was that it's easy for Jimmy McGarry to push your letters to one side and dismiss them,

I know exactly what you mean Wester. I usually hate reactionary responses as I believe they can easily be refuted and dismissed. However I feel that even though my email was clearly fueled by anger it was also as measured as I could possibly make it in that I meant every single word in it. I read it over and considered it five times before I sent it off so it wasn't a spur of the moment, off the top of my head job even though I appreciate it may look like that because it's so angry. I've also made it clear in the email why he doesn't deserve the respect he asks for.

Here's the link to the Sligo Today story. Reading Dale Barber's letter in particular spurred me into action.

http://sligotoday.ie/details.php?id=6713

And on the topic of interviews, Des Faul from Cafe Fleur and Councillor Veronica Cawley were interviewed on RTE Radio 1's Drivetime show yesterday. One comment of note. Des maintained that decisions like these made by councillors over the past few years have held Sligo back. Veronica replied "some councillors."

itac

Just read about it in the Irish Times...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1121/1224259237375.html

It's one thing for us to be jokingly putting down our hometown when in company, it's something everyone says now and again. It's a whole other story to denounce the place on national radio, and now, in national print too. There'll be a lot more people who read the I.T. on a Saturday than listen to Hooky on Newstalk:(

Mickey, fair play to you for standing up for the cause. Yes, the correspondence comes across as aggressive, but McGarry should also be made to understand the vehemence felt about this issue. Traffic is sh** for those trying to cross the town, but at the same time, it's equally frustrating if you're trying to get to the centre of town from the Hospital/Connaughton Rd. direction...surely there's other options than just O Connell St. for those coming from Teeling St. etc...

I know somebody mentioned a two-way Bridge St. as a possible option-if they can close streets, and change the direction of traffic on them i.e. Stephen St./Market. St., surely they can look at other possibilities before reopening one lane?! Or worst case scenario, paint Zebra crossings/light operated crossings every 10-15metres down O Connell St. or don't allow any parking on the street(deliveries only allowed v.early in the morning?!) or widen the footpaths as much as possible....

They should have to reopen it in such a way that helps the pedestrian as much as the driver, otherwise what's the point in promoting Sligo as somewhere for people to shop/visit/spend time in?!

God, I love my hometown, but the council etc. really make it impossible to praise it as a somewhere to go to at times!