Comments received from Patrick O'Rourke in response to the recent Diary post entitled "What now for Filan's Follies?";
Now..Shane Filan. As you may know my own blog turned into a focal point
for the issues of Shafin's developments and how they affected people and
their environments. I did have to retract my offer to throw him in the
Bonet though lol. However, and somewhat ironically I have a certain
understanding of his position. His job is that of a high earning
popstar. Shafin was from what I can make out driven by his family rather
than him. He put money in and guaranteed liabilities during the CT
days. That has left him in the position now of having to go for
bankruptcy. From the figures released..whether fact or fiction it's
pretty unlikely he'll ever be able to cover the debts even with a solo
career. I know he was trying to do a deal with the banks to protect his
future earnings but that appears not to have worked from what I can
glean.
As someone who has major issues with what Shafin has already done let alone what was planned to desecrate the village. Concreting over the bulk of medieval Dromahair of the O'Rourkes (under Stonebridge) was for us unforgivable. However I now know he was personally completely unaware of that fact. And as for killing off the local shops, again he found that hard to believe as his people and their work of fiction known as a financial impact statement had told him otherwise. That report could have been penned by JK Rowling.
I think that our rage..or just angst should be directed at the planning process and it's agents..and with Shane's family who run Shafin that treated the views of people affected by the developments with some disdain. Shane just does what he does for a living..sings and travels. I don't think he'll be putting any more cents into property development though. The planning policies of the country being based on a developers right to develop rather than real planning for a community's needs are the real problem here. If it hadn't been Shafin it would have been someone else. Of course the elephant in the room was how Shafin got planning permission where others failed...and the fear of planning agencies and others going up against such financial might has never been investigated.
Planning authorities have really been let off the hook for the development carnage littering the country. With proper planning in place the banks wouldn't have had the market for their reckless loan products...and Ireland wouldn't have 350,000 empty houses. Where did they think that the million people needed to fill them were going to come from?
As for Shane, I wish him the best with his solo career. It's highly unlikely that any of the proceeds will end up messing up any more of Dromahair I'd say. It's a tough business the music industry and there's nothing to say his career will not bomb. Westlife aren't songwriters so won't have publishing rights to keep earning for them. All they get is concert gate proceeds and recording royalties (and they are compromised by torrents). The shelf life doesn't look great.
To conclude I can only re-iterate that it's the planning policies and process that need to be fixed. Without that we're all at the mercy of the next rich developer(s) as to whether Dromahair stays the same place that earned it the title of Prettiest Village in Ireland. Pop Star, syndicate, opportunist or just a local..it makes no difference at the end of the day if the result is the same.
Once again...well done on the blog. It's great diverse reading. Well overdue.
Cheers
Patrick J.O'Rourke
As someone who has major issues with what Shafin has already done let alone what was planned to desecrate the village. Concreting over the bulk of medieval Dromahair of the O'Rourkes (under Stonebridge) was for us unforgivable. However I now know he was personally completely unaware of that fact. And as for killing off the local shops, again he found that hard to believe as his people and their work of fiction known as a financial impact statement had told him otherwise. That report could have been penned by JK Rowling.
I think that our rage..or just angst should be directed at the planning process and it's agents..and with Shane's family who run Shafin that treated the views of people affected by the developments with some disdain. Shane just does what he does for a living..sings and travels. I don't think he'll be putting any more cents into property development though. The planning policies of the country being based on a developers right to develop rather than real planning for a community's needs are the real problem here. If it hadn't been Shafin it would have been someone else. Of course the elephant in the room was how Shafin got planning permission where others failed...and the fear of planning agencies and others going up against such financial might has never been investigated.
Planning authorities have really been let off the hook for the development carnage littering the country. With proper planning in place the banks wouldn't have had the market for their reckless loan products...and Ireland wouldn't have 350,000 empty houses. Where did they think that the million people needed to fill them were going to come from?
As for Shane, I wish him the best with his solo career. It's highly unlikely that any of the proceeds will end up messing up any more of Dromahair I'd say. It's a tough business the music industry and there's nothing to say his career will not bomb. Westlife aren't songwriters so won't have publishing rights to keep earning for them. All they get is concert gate proceeds and recording royalties (and they are compromised by torrents). The shelf life doesn't look great.
To conclude I can only re-iterate that it's the planning policies and process that need to be fixed. Without that we're all at the mercy of the next rich developer(s) as to whether Dromahair stays the same place that earned it the title of Prettiest Village in Ireland. Pop Star, syndicate, opportunist or just a local..it makes no difference at the end of the day if the result is the same.
Once again...well done on the blog. It's great diverse reading. Well overdue.
Cheers
Patrick J.O'Rourke
No comments:
Post a Comment