He was sitting alone at the bar when I went in last Friday. And when I greeted him as 'Skipper' and had ordered a drink, the first thing he did was show me the letter he had received that day. It was from Wicklow County Council, and it was his 'eviction notice' from the mooring he has occupied in the harbour for decades.
A compulsory purchase order, following on the decision by An Bord Pleanala to uphold planning permission for the PPP harbour development plan: an order which will leave him, and the 19 other mooring holders, with no rights whatever once the new harbour is built, other than to apply for a berth in the new marina to Sispar, the developers, at very high rent.
Jimmy has been a sailor all his life, in the merchant marine, as a crew trainer, and as a private yachtsman. At 88 years old, the sea is still his life. Jimmy helped with his own hands to save Greystones Harbour from total destruction when the county council or government would take no interest, slaving to fill a circular component of an old marine construction with concrete to prevent the harbour silting up completely and the harbour wall from further storm damage.
Now he has been evicted. His love of the sea, and a life's work promoting sailing, counts for nothing to the PPP autocrats and money-grabbers at WCC and Sispar.
Same goes for Greystones Sailing Club: dispossessed of its clubhouse and the ground it stands upon, this local facility and social amenity will have to apply, as if it was any outside body, for a rental lease on the new clubhouse, and will have to fork up €100,000 a year for space in the marina. Where's that going to leave all the young people who learn to sail, and sail well, in this low-cost club? What price will membership be in a few years? I'll tell you: way too much for most of the present members. Way too much for my son to learn to sail here. But OK for millionaires who overspill from the crowded yacht clubs of Dun Laoghaire and Dublin Bay.
Think about it. The costs of this development are beginning now, and the costs are severe damage to social amenity and to the future of living in Greystones.
A compulsory purchase order, following on the decision by An Bord Pleanala to uphold planning permission for the PPP harbour development plan: an order which will leave him, and the 19 other mooring holders, with no rights whatever once the new harbour is built, other than to apply for a berth in the new marina to Sispar, the developers, at very high rent.
Jimmy has been a sailor all his life, in the merchant marine, as a crew trainer, and as a private yachtsman. At 88 years old, the sea is still his life. Jimmy helped with his own hands to save Greystones Harbour from total destruction when the county council or government would take no interest, slaving to fill a circular component of an old marine construction with concrete to prevent the harbour silting up completely and the harbour wall from further storm damage.
Now he has been evicted. His love of the sea, and a life's work promoting sailing, counts for nothing to the PPP autocrats and money-grabbers at WCC and Sispar.
Same goes for Greystones Sailing Club: dispossessed of its clubhouse and the ground it stands upon, this local facility and social amenity will have to apply, as if it was any outside body, for a rental lease on the new clubhouse, and will have to fork up €100,000 a year for space in the marina. Where's that going to leave all the young people who learn to sail, and sail well, in this low-cost club? What price will membership be in a few years? I'll tell you: way too much for most of the present members. Way too much for my son to learn to sail here. But OK for millionaires who overspill from the crowded yacht clubs of Dun Laoghaire and Dublin Bay.
Think about it. The costs of this development are beginning now, and the costs are severe damage to social amenity and to the future of living in Greystones.
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