Should Drogheda be a city?

its_steve116

Largest town in the State; bigger than Dundalk, Kilkenny or Navan and catching up with Waterford population wise.

JasonStatham

its_steve116 wrote: »

Largest town in the State; bigger than Dundalk, Kilkenny or Navan and catching up with Waterford population wise.

Is it not already a city?

Amirani

Nah, not when there's less than 50,000 people there.

Fr_Dougal

No way. And Kilkenny isn’t a real city, it’s a medieval city.

Drogheda should be razed to the ground.

Eleven Benevolent Elephants

Will granting it city status benefit it in any way?

Gregor Samsa

JasonStatham wrote: »

Is it not already a city?

Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway are the only official cities in Ireland (the Republic) with City Councils. Kilkenny has city status by Royal Charter, and is referred to as a city in the Local Government Reform Act 2014, and the Local Government Act 2001 allows it to be “described” as a city, but it not officially one and does not have a City Council. Cashel once had city status by Royal Charter too. People (locals) sometimes try to describe Sligo and Drogheda as a cities, but neither are.

Should Drogheda be a city now? I suppose it depends on what benefits giving it a City Council would have. I’m not up to speed on what they are.

Some Yoke

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

No way. And Kilkenny isn’t a real city, it’s a medieval city.

Drogheda should be razed to the ground.

We can only hope one days the children of the nation shall be set free from the burden of Drogheda upon Eires shoulders

Zebra3

And it can be rebrand itself as the Lisburn of the South.

Signore Fancy Pants

It should be walled in and concreted over.

The accent of those poor folk alone is justification of the above.

its_steve116

Zebra3 wrote: »

And it can be rebrand itself as the Lisburn of the South.

The Lisburn of the South?

Some Yoke

its_steve116 wrote: »

Largest town in the State; bigger than Dundalk, Kilkenny or Navan and catching up with Waterford population wise.

Kilkennys got the looks and class though

ChikiChiki

The place should be levelled.

breezy1985

I don't know alot about the place so my question would be does it feel like a city or when you are living there does it feel like a typical Irish 1 street town just with bigger suburbs?

Kilkenny for instance definitely feels like a county town and no more a city than Ennis, Thurles or Castlebar.

Sam Quentin

Is Dundalk not bigger and a more spacious Town centre.. it's years since I was up that direction

TuringBot47

I've a sister up in Drogheda, know it well.

Apparently the IDA is encouraging companies to set up in Dundalk not Drogheda, despite it being much closer to Dublin and the airport.
Dundalk control the Louth budget and there's some long fued between them and Drogheda.

City status would give them more control of their budget.

Montage of Feck

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

No way. And Kilkenny isn’t a real city, it’s a medieval city.

Drogheda should be razed to the ground.

Didn't Cromwell already do just that?

bobbyy gee

City or town
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_status_in_Ireland#:~:text=The%20requirement%20for%20a%20town,town%20and%20sometimes%20a%20city.

Zebra3

its_steve116 wrote: »

The Lisburn of the South?

Lisburn which is little more than a town outside Belfast was given city status a number of years ago.

breezy1985

Zebra3 wrote: »

Lisburn which is little more than a town outside Belfast was given city status a number of years ago.

In the UK Lizzie can wave her golden soup ladle or whatever it is that royalty do and make anywhere a city with no real criteria to fulfil. She done the same with Bangor or somewhere

All giving Drogheda city status would do is increase the already bizarre local bureaucracy. A complete waste of time and money, in my view.

Getting the traffic in the town sorted would be a better ambition for the good folks looking for city status.

Capt'n Midnight

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

No way. And Kilkenny isn’t a real city, it’s a medieval city.

Used to be capital of Ireland

No grá for the Confederation of Kilkenny ?

Drogheda should be razed to the ground.

No.

Fill in the arches and turn the railway viaduct into a hydroelectric dam.

McGinniesta

Sprawling metropolis

cj maxx

its_steve116 wrote: »

The Lisburn of the South?

The queen of england proclaimed Lisburn to be a city , so to balance things out she also made Newry a “city”.
It’s pushing it.
Armagh is a “city “ also

dxhound2005

cj maxx wrote: »

The queen of england proclaimed Lisburn to be a city , so to balance things out she also made Newry a “city”.
It’s pushing it.
Armagh is a “city “ also

It wasn't a case of balancing things out. They both qualified under the same criteria, according to the BBC. The UK system does not need a big population to make a city. Plenty of places with small populations are cities.

It was a tale of two new cities in Northern Ireland on Thursday.
Lisburn in County Antrim and the border town of Newry in County Down were celebrating after being granted city status in a competition to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

The towns were judged on their notable characteristics, their historical and royal connections and their progressive attitude.

John Doe1

Yeah why not, in Norway which is comparable to us in terms of population have plenty of cities with 10,000 approx population:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_and_cities_in_Norway

If a large town in Ireland is the main urban centre for a large enough area rather than a suburb or commuter town, you could have it as a city.

You could have Letterkenny, Sligo, Ennis, Tralee, Athlone, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Drogheda, Dundalk as cities.

It would likely help attract more business and prestige to the place with city status

cj maxx

Good enough point. If they’re big enough for a RTC , or whatever they’re called now, make them a city . As you say they’re already the main big regional towns

Littlehorny

Would Tallaght or Swords not be bigger than any of the big towns around the country?

Edgware

Well if Newry can be called a city since 2002 Drogheda must be in with a chance.
Although the levelling of both would still be my choice

feargale

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Drogheda should be razed to the ground.

Again, Oliver?

cj maxx

cj maxx wrote: »

Good enough point. If they’re big enough for a RTC , or whatever they’re called now, make them a city . As you say they’re already the main big regional towns

Road Traffic Collision? Like I say, if they sorted the traffic out, that would be more useful

Notions

BQQ

TuringBot47 wrote: »

I've a sister up in Drogheda, know it well.

Apparently the IDA is encouraging companies to set up in Dundalk not Drogheda, despite it being much closer to Dublin and the airport.
Dundalk control the Louth budget and there's some long fued between them and Drogheda.

City status would give them more control of their budget.

This ^^

A rare sensible post with genuine insight that will be lost in the flood of parochial "it's a sh*thole" style comments.

TuringBot47

TuringBot47 wrote: »

I've a sister up in Drogheda, know it well.

Apparently the IDA is encouraging companies to set up in Dundalk not Drogheda, despite it being much closer to Dublin and the airport.
Dundalk control the Louth budget and there's some long fued between them and Drogheda.

City status would give them more control of their budget.

I understand the points, but I really don’t see the connection between who controls local administrative budgets and the IDA promoting Dundalk over Drogheda. For me, it’s a post hoc fallacy. Maybe Dundalk is better at lobbying IDA?

I live in Drogheda (and have for the last 20 years) and I enjoy it here. Great efforts are made to make the town look nice, especially the planting on bridges and in the town.

But an awful lot could be done to improve the town, particularly in terms of traffic management, in my view. The current approach seems to be to make it as hard as possible to get through and around the place. The traffic lights (in the main) aren’t intelligent, they work in opposition/defiance of the next set of lights, there is an infestation of road humps in the oddest of places, and West Street could best be described as half baked - and half finished - attempt at a pedestrian zone. Becoming a city won’t change any of that. Making it an attractive and easy to use place will encourage businesses and people to locate here.

robertpatterson

BQQ wrote: »

This ^^

A rare sensible post with genuine insight that will be lost in the flood of parochial "it's a sh*thole" style comments.

Its a ****hole!!

Mr Meanor

Drogheda is a small dormitory town wedged into a small valley.
Future city, No.

TuringBot47

Deleted User wrote: »

I understand the points, but I really don’t see the connection between who controls local administrative budgets and the IDA promoting Dundalk over Drogheda. For me, it’s a post hoc fallacy. Maybe Dundalk is better at lobbying IDA?

I live in Drogheda (and have for the last 20 years) and I enjoy it here. Great efforts are made to make the town look nice, especially the planting on bridges and in the town.

But an awful lot could be done to improve the town, particularly in terms of traffic management, in my view. The current approach seems to be to make it as hard as possible to get through and around the place.

Then maybe I can see the problems easier from the outside.
A few plants on a bridge isn't going to help anything accept a bunch of senior citizens who judge the tidy towns competition.


The toll bridge should be above Drogheda not splitting the town into two parts.
It forces a lot of UK and local traffic through the town to avoid the toll bridge.

I know a mate working in Yapstone, an I.T. company in Drogheda.
My sister and another mate commutes from Drogheda to Dublin city/South Dublin because there's no local I.T. companies.

Decentralization would help everyone.
I.T. and finance companies would have lower rent, employees would accept lower wages (at least the commuting costs), traffic in Dublin would lower etc...

Hopefully this Covid 19 virus will actively decentralize jobs in Dublin city centre better than any inept politician could.
The only thing going for Dundalk vs Drogheda is the zero experienced graduates pool.

bobbyy gee

41000 people how can it be a city
100.000 should be cut off point

TuringBot47

bobbyy gee wrote: »

41000 people how can it be a city
100.000 should be cut off point

The thing is, from my reading of the "Drogheda Leader" on the toilet a few months ago, was that Drogheda population was above 50,000 ?

Some of Drogheda is clipped in the South by Meath, loads of surrounding satelite villages not considered too. Would you consider Ranelagh/Rathmines as Dublin?

If all the I.T. jobs weren't in Dublin, I'd consider trading down to move there for a better house. There's talk of the Dart going there in under five years.

Edgware

A number of years ago one of the local councillors in Drogheda ( anyone from Drogheda will guess right first time) suggested that Drogheda should have its own airport!
One reason he said was that Drogheda United could use it when travelling to away matches!

Signore Fancy Pants

BQQ wrote: »

This ^^

A rare sensible post with genuine insight that will be lost in the flood of parochial "it's a sh*thole" style comments.

Its not a sh1thole.

It's a fcuking huge sh1thole! A fcuking huuuuuuggggeeee one!

jmlad2020

Unfortunately I can't say I know much about the town of Drogheda other than it is known for it's gang related activity and drugs (media influenced)

It's up to the people and council to change that and make people like me want to visit it. So it should be working towards growing positively and becoming a city eventually.

TuringBot47

Edgware wrote: »

A number of years ago one of the local councillors in Drogheda ( anyone from Drogheda will guess right first time) suggested that Drogheda should have its own airport!

That has to be satire... I seen a FAA side calendar a few years ago where they marked the "mickey money" (child benefits) payments dates on the calendar.
Probably only 5 mins airtime from Dublin airport to Drogheda, so must be a p*ss take. Although in fairness I think Louth is a Sinn Fein county so logic probably goes out the window.

TuringBot47

jmlad2020 wrote: »

Unfortunately I can't say I know much about the town of Drogheda other than it is known for it's gang related activity and drugs (media influenced)

Through various 2nd level in-laws, I know more than I should about this.
It only takes about 20 people to destroy the reputation of an entire town.

Travellers vs non-travellers drug dealers, and only kicked off in the last few years when one botched murder attempt paralyzed the leader of the other. Which would probably harbour some unfavourable feelings for a while.

is_that_so

TuringBot47 wrote: »

I've a sister up in Drogheda, know it well.

Apparently the IDA is encouraging companies to set up in Dundalk not Drogheda, despite it being much closer to Dublin and the airport.
Dundalk control the Louth budget and there's some long fued between them and Drogheda.

City status would give them more control of their budget.

The IDA situation is messy as their park is actually in Meath, who are a pretty useless CC and I think there are very few companies in it. There was a submission to redraw the town boundary but Meath CC suddenly found they cared about a lot of commercial rates going missing.

Dundalk, according to Drogheda, has always been favoured. If you look at the companies in Dundalk it's fairly true. TBH the lack of attention is all a bit odd given that Drogheda now has a catchment area of about 70,000, far more than Dundalk could ever muster.

As for the politic, since the merging of town and county councils it depends what clout people have on LCC.

Doc07

Edgware wrote: »

A number of years ago one of the local councillors in Drogheda ( anyone from Drogheda will guess right first time) suggested that Drogheda should have its own airport!
One reason he said was that Drogheda United could use it when travelling to away matches!

Must be the one and only Frank G

Capt'n Midnight

Dundalk can capture cross border trade.

Drogheda is too close to Dublin.



Maybe Louth should just give it to Meath ?
I'll upset the people of Navan too.

Edgware

Doc07 wrote: »

Must be the one and only Frank G

Top of the class!

Still he was better than the councillor in North Cork when adressing an after church meeting at election time who stated " I met a woman in the shops last week who's waiting 12 months to have a baby in Mallow County Hospital

breezy1985

dxhound2005 wrote: »

It wasn't a case of balancing things out. They both qualified under the same criteria, according to the BBC. The UK system does not need a big population to make a city. Plenty of places with small populations are cities.

It was a tale of two new cities in Northern Ireland on Thursday.
Lisburn in County Antrim and the border town of Newry in County Down were celebrating after being granted city status in a competition to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

The towns were judged on their notable characteristics, their historical and royal connections and their progressive attitude.

Please tell me that last line is satire

dxhound2005

breezy1985 wrote: »

Please tell me that last line is satire

No, straightforward reporting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/1872287.stm

breezy1985

dxhound2005 wrote: »

No, straightforward reporting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/1872287.stm

Cant be its got to be some quality deep trolling from the BBC. I bet some lad in editing is laughing his arse off that he managed to slip that in

Dr. Bre

Drugheda

riclad

It's not big enough to be a city.
What's the advantage of being a city anyway.?