Dublin City Council is to break its association with Guinness’s Arthur’s Day due to its association with alcohol. I am urging officials in the Council to reverse their decision before setting a precedent that might have serious drawbacks for the city in the future.

It’s not responsible behaviour on the part of the Council. The council should be supporting this, doing what it can to make the event better – for punters, businesses and everyone in Dublin. If there is a concern about over indulgent behaviour at such events the answer is not to walk away and wash your hands, but to engage and use your involvement and your influence to ensure that the event is run properly.

Some of my senior colleagues on the Council seem to be pursing an agenda against this festival. It’s a bit curious because from their comments in the Council they clearly don’t understand what the festival is about. I doubt any of them were even at it.

While yes, Guinness is using it to promote themselves, for the punter it is essentially a music festival. And it has the potential to grow in to something quite significant for the City and the country.

People were out in town, eating, drinking, having a good time and enjoying themselves. That’s a good thing. They were spending money and businesses were making money. The rest of the world is already aware of this festival and soon enough it’s going to be a reason to come to the country in September, so there’s a tourism potential also.

It’s a very innovative idea for a musical festival. Fans love it, the venues love it, and from speaking to one of the bands on the night, they love it too – it’s unlike any other festival they do.

Yes some people will go out on these nights and take it to excess. But they’re not doing it because of the festival, they’re using the festival as an excuse to indulge what is likely an already established pattern of behaviour.

No one is advocating alcohol abuse. But at the same time it’s perfectly acceptable that taking a drink be part of our social and cultural occasions. I would be worried that this new policy could have a very damaging knock on effect for other cultural events in the city that rely upon different types of sponsorship.

On the 6^th September 2010 Swan Leisure, Rathmines, will open for business. Swan Leisure is the business name of the new public leisure centre in Rathmines Square, Lower Rathmines Rd. Swan Leisure is operated by Dublin City Sports and Leisure Services Ltd. on behalf of Dublin City Council for the community of Rathmines and the surrounding area. Initially, Swan Leisure will be open for pre booked swimming for local schools only from the 6^th September.

On the 27^th September the leisure centre will open fully to the general public and provide a complete service. A marketing campaign will be launched to promote the facility in the local community using banners, posters, flyers and local media.

Services offered:

• 25m Swimming Pool
• Gym
• 2 Fitness studios
• Sports Hall

Opening hours:

• Monday to Friday – 7am to 10pm
• Saturday & Sunday – 10am to 6pm

Pricing and access programmes:

For more information contact:

swanleisure@gmail.com or contact reception on 01-4967908/01-4967909

The annual Irish commemoration of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place yesterday in Merrion Square. The event was organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and I was asked by the Lord Mayor to formally open the ceremony. Before my election to Dublin City Council I worked in the area of nuclear weapon disarmament, both in Ireland and abroad, so it was an occasion of particular relevance to me and I was honoured to be there on behalf of the citizens of Dublin. Below you can read my brief remarks at the commemoration.

***

Welcome and thank you for coming.

It seems to be a facet of humanity, of human history, that we are determined to learn by our mistakes – by making mistakes. We must lack the capacity of rational or reasonable forethought because it is through error that the great lessons of our race are learnt.

But perhaps the greater tragedy behind this fact is that there are those among us who do not learn at all. In the corridors of power, in many countries, today, people are making arguments for the possession of nuclear weapons, for the acquisition of nuclear weapons, for the retention of nuclear weapons, and even for the use of nuclear weapons.

Good ideas have their time. But bad ideas, unfortunately, have many. And with every step that we take away from 6 August 1945, the opportunity for this particular bad idea to come to the fore again increases.

That is why we are here today. That is why it is so important. I’m too young to remember the attack on Hiroshima. My parents are too young to remember it. My grandparents remembered it, but they are dead. What then when all our grandparents are dead, and our parents and ourselves. What then of this most important piece of our history – so important in fact that our future histories depend on its remembrance.

We must remember. Because in remembering this horrific event, in reminding the world that it happened, we hope to see that it can never happen again.

That hope is not enough on its own unfortunately. Much else needs to be done. We need a test ban treaty. We need a fissile material cut off treaty. We need greater transparency over existing stocks. And we need a realistic and time bound plan for getting to zero, for the elimination of every nuclear weapon from this earth. And what we need, as Irish people, is for our government to reassert its moral authority again and to distance itself from our European allies – two of whom are weapon possessors – when it comes to this most important issue. We once led the world on the necessity of nuclear disarmament. Unfortunately, no more. We need to find that voice again, that courage and that commitment.

But for today at least, we recall this terrible memory, this most shocking of human acts, and we hope together that the world may never witness another like it.

Thank you.

On Thursday evening last I was invited along to the old folk’s summer ball in Dublin South East. It was taking place down on Pearse Street in the evening and though I really didn’t have time to go along (motions for the second stage of the development plan were due the next day) i’m conscious that it’s important to be out and about with your constituents at these kinds of events. So I jumped on a Dublinbike and popped down (stopping in to a friend for a quick bite and catch up on the way).

This will sound cheesy, but these are the types of events that keep me going.

A packed hall. About 180 older people from around the community having a great night out. The Garda band. And a small team of dedicated Council staff running the show. A very positive vibe to a very positive event. And for me it’s very much what community is all about. People helping people. People working for something bigger than themselves. Everyone benefiting.

But what really did it for me, on top of this, was the fact that I got to pitch in. No standing around, making chit-chat, posing, canvassing for votes. I got to actually do something tangible and immediate in terms of helping out. I got to serve the food. Well, the sausages portion of the meal anyway.

We dished out 180 meals in record time. A colleague from Labour who was there did the same and there was about 8 of us scrambling around the hall getting the plates out to the tables and then following up with coffee etc. It all went very well and we worked up a sweat and had a great laugh doing it. Happy out.

Did it help me get any votes? Probably not. Does that bother me? I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. Maybe it should bother me. I mean I probably should have been canvassing the room, shaking hands and giving out free pens like one of the local TDs was.

Or then again, maybe no harm in not worrying about that for once, seeing the bigger picture, and not being such a bloody politician.

Maybe.