New City For The West Of Ireland - Speech Network Galway

Ireland
The Past - the Present - the Future
Has Ireland failed to express its Greatness?

William A. Thomas
President
New City for the West Company Ltd

A paper for delivery at Network Galway's annual Seminar
"Responding to Economic and Social Change: Creating a New Vision for the Future"
29th May 2002 - Westwood Hotel, Newcastle, Galway

Liam Bluett, Anne O'Brien (National President of Network Ireland),
William A. Thomas,
Alison Herbert (President Network Galway) and Caroline Casey.

Dear friends,

I have been asked to present a paper about Ireland - the future, and my vision on the need for a beautiful and new city to correspond with the increase of population to over 6 million by the year 2020, and the redress of population imbalance between East and West - in other words, and as we all know, we can't all live in Dublin (this is not the Republic of Dublin).

Before proceeding to the future and this vision of a new city, I need to step back to look at (very briefly) the history of Ireland to show our emergence as a Nation and to highlight some important things we have missed - that make us the people we are today.

So therefore, in a microcosm, here is the history of Ireland in a snapshot.

In 125 AD - Ireland was divided into two, with an invisible line between East and West. The top half was called Conn's half, and the bottom half was known as Mogha half.

In 150 AD - Celtic Ireland begins to emerge with tribal settlements beginning to appear, and names with a mix of Greek/ Latin/ and Arabic being used. Galway (as now is) was known as Anteini, Mayo was known as Magnate, Limerick as Luceni, and so on.

By 225 AD, we see the emergence of the legendary kings, like Conaire of Munster and King Cormac - who was grandson of Conn of the 100 battles (top half) - sets up Tara and with it the Royal Provinces and sites.

Arrival of Patrick in 432 AD - and the evangelisation not only of Ireland, but the evangelisation of Europe in what is known as the "Golden Age." Ireland blossomed during this 300-400 year period. Towns and tribes and territories developed. Universities began to appear and schools of learning, and Ireland began to evangelise Europe with Columba going to Iona to convert the picts in Scotland - Brendan goes to America - Columbanus went to Brittany, Fursa to East Anglia, Boniface to Canterbury and others on to Fulda, Bobbio and Gubbio, Sardinia and on east to Poland, to teach and evangelise, before Cyril and Methodius.

In the 800's the Vikings came from Sweden, Norsemen came from Norway, and the cruellest came from Denmark: the Danes. These set up towns in what are now Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Dublin,, with outposts in Arklow, Wexford, and Lough Lee.

1188-1200 AD - The Norman Invasion with King Henry II landing a large army in Waterford in 1171 AD. He takes on Strongbow, and medieval Ireland begins to take shape. Names like O'Malley, O'Flaherty, O'Rourke, O'Donnell, O'Neil, Mac Carthys, Mac Dermots etc… begin to appear. Dark Ages sweeping over Europe, period of anarchy and violence, following the collapse of civilizations.
By the late 15th Century, the so-called Gaelic Resurgence begins to happen. Ireland was largely a country of peasants with feudal landlords, Anglo-Irish Lords and Earls ruled. By 1500 - names like Galway, Mayo, Dublin, Meath, Limerick and Clare were commonly used.

By the 1550-1650 AD - The plantation and settlement of English and Scottish takes place, and the famous "Flight of the Earls," ending with the siege of Kinsale in 1601.

By 1700 AD - Connacht becomes the place for the transplanted Irish, who put up a last stand but were defeated at the battle of Aughrim.

1798 AD - Rebellion.

Famine years - and the emergence of the language of despair, the genre of tragedy, and the music becomes a lamentation.

Modern History.

The Ireland today:

Just before commenting on the Ireland of 2002, I wish to reflect again and highlight two major influences that missed Ireland and that have shaped, or indeed misshaped the Ireland of today.
One was the Gothic Period, which was a period of 2/300 years which saw the emergence from the Dark Ages, (a period when civilization collapsed and anarchy was the order of the day) by the building of three main Gothic buildings: the Cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, and Amiens - the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world - and from which the Gothic buildings are copies in Köln, Aachen, St Vilinus in Prague. And to the end of this Gothic Period begins the Renaissance Period, which also misses Ireland, and has consequential results for the Irish. The Renaissance or Renasita, or Rebirth, of culture, arts, education etc…

I recently watched a television interview on CNN, where an American journalist interviewed a Bedouin tribesman living in a tent, in the middle of the Iraqi desert. The journalist asked the man if he was happy to live in a tent, in such poverty, with a pot of rice for himself and his family, while Saddam Hussein built Presidential Palaces around the country. The man replied that he was not happy, because Saddam was not building the Palaces big enough - because when they are big enough, and beautiful, then and only then will the world see what a Great people we are.

The whole movements of Gothic and Renaissance were indeed such: to show what great nations Italy and France were, beyond barbarism. New artistic techniques reflected a desire to re-create the forms and styles of classical art (remember Athens) - now you see the emergence of Florence as the second most consequential city in the History of man.

Central to the development of Renaissance art, was the emergence of the artist as a creator. Art was valued as a mode of personal and aesthetic expression.

Giotto was the 1st genius of art in the Italian Renaissance. His reputation was well known in Italy and the Pope at the time, Boniface VIII, sent a messenger to inquire how good he was - and could he bring back a sample of his work. Giotto dipped his brush into red paint, and with one continuous stroke, painted a perfect circle.

In the church of Santa Croce in Florence, in the 14 chapels, Giotto paints the life of Francis of Assissi.

He proves he has a great grasp of human emotion, and what was significant in human life.

In concentrating on these essentials he created compelling pictures of people under stress - of people caught up in crisis - and soul-searching decisions. He brings us Western paintings - a move away from the Byzantine, which dominated, from the times of Constantinople. He thus begins this rebirth, which produces the greats like Carravaggio, and Carracei, Titian, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Da Vinci, Rubens, Pozzo, and the awesome Michelangelo. Awesome in imagination (image of a nation) and equally awesome in his awareness of the significance - beauty to him was DIVINE.

Within this Renaissance movement, we had Baroque Architecture - perfect symmetry and were grandiose in that the buildings themselves showed not only beauty, but also human perfection - and to the one who perceives, a vision, a destination and a purpose. Bernini was the supreme genius of Baroque art- architecture. This movement spread all over Europe and to Central and South America.

These buildings were build to affect and effect the greatness of the peoples not only by showing them perfection, nobility and beauty but in fact calling them to greatness.
Sadly neither the Gothic nor any of the Renaissance and Baroque movement came to Ireland. And architecturally, we are indeed primitive; we have nothing to show of our greatness - if indeed we are great? - We have nice buildings like Marino, the Custom House, Dublin Castle, Ashford, Kylemore, Dromoland, etc… but we Irish didn't build them.

The Ireland of today 2002 - fresh after the elections - looking to the future.
We are now officially the 3rd wealthiest country in Europe - albeit in private hands. So what have we to show for it? Let me give you some statistics.

Here is Ireland today during a pause in the Celtic Tiger:

Ireland has moved away and continues to move away from the European norm of economic and social development and toward the US norm.
We have the highest rate of poverty in the EU with some 800,000 living below the poverty line, of which 322,000 are children (the state support for children is 75% below the EU average).
In 2001 the UN World Development report rated Ireland second bottom in its record on poverty among industrialized countries.
U. Values: The level of fuel poverty in Ireland is very high by EU standards - and has the worst record on standards of domestic energy conservation in Europe. Less than 40% of Irish homes have insulation.
Poor families spend 3 times as much on fuel as those whose homes are insulated - we have some 1500 to 2000 deaths per year from exposure to cold. This level of winter mortality is greater than the Nordic countries - and we have no national program for insulation or for the retrospective fitting of efficient heating systems.
Ireland's environmental record is the worst in Europe - breaches EU directives, concerning:
- Waste management
- Drinking water
- Environment impact assessments
- Habitats
- Combustion pollution
- Disposal of toxic waste, in fact we have no toxic waste policy at all - most factories have no-where to dump toxic waste.
- Nitrates: we have broken all EU treaties on the elimination of nitrates.
- We have increased our pollutants by 38% and almost produce 1 million tons of acid rain per year.
Ireland's name will soon be withdrawn from the list of recommended tourist destinations - EPA found that drinking water had over 50% contamination by E-coli.
In the garden of Ireland, Wicklow, over 200 huge toxic sites have been discovered, with some 650 discovered nationwide and an expected total to reach in excess of 5,000 if they find them all.
Ireland is now the most corrupt EU state, and we are now losing business as a result.
And have become the most unequal society in Europe.
And as such an unhappy people - involved in many forms of self-uglification including alcohol abuse - 1 million pints of stout, 1½ million pints lagers per day (not to mention other spirits etc.)- Drugs, suicide, and in addition 650 children deliberately tried to kill themselves last year.

My vision of Ireland in 2020

Plan for a whole new city, not just a physical structure, beautiful as it will be, but this will be a whole new mindset. A thinking toward beauty, and perfection rather than the dysfunctionality that has plagued us for the past 1,500 years.

Today we have 5 medieval cities completely grid locked, designed some 1,000 years ago, some 500 years, long before buses and juggernauts existed, let alone cars, and the volume of cars. There is no longer room for the horse and cart, which is what the roads were designed for - people are now the next casualty - and things can only get worse - especially as we have an expanding population.

I have formally and officially proposed to the Government, the Cabinet, and the appropriate Ministers responsible, plus the heads of all political parties, along with EU officials etc… That Ireland go down the road of planning, designing, putting out to international tender, for architecture, design, engineering, finance, planning, transport, and so on.
Our team on the new city are working away on a master plan, to be able to give parameters on what exactly we are looking for, and what is the purpose of such a city - and why base it in the West.

Ireland built its first new town in the 1960's, called Shannon New Town. This was a unique opportunity to build a beautiful town at Shannon Airport, the gateway to the Americas - something that would be beautiful and reflect not only the traditions and culture of Ireland, but be a great place to live, and have become a model for the rest of Ireland to follow its planning, its architecture, and the greatness of its people. People always respond to the milieu in which they are placed: if you place someone in a palace, they will behave like a king; if you place someone in a slum, their behaviour changes accordingly. So why not create a place where people will be optimum people, happy, stress free, and so on.
What was done in Shannon New Town was a disgrace. It was political expediency at its worst. No planning. No proper infrastructure. No town centre, where now people have to travel from Shannon, to shop in Limerick. No social infrastructure.
What are the results today? Drugs, drink, murder, delinquency - an unhappy people - with no destination. Lost!

More recently, someone discovered that inner city Dublin might become valuable as a property market (Financial Services Centre). The only problem was "people lived there", people who incidentally are "the greatest asset on any nation" (or the greatest liability).
People were scooped out, and placed in Tallaght - a new town, which for 20 years had no public transport to or from (This is the 1980's I'm talking about), no town centre until 5 years ago. The only facility they had there was a rat-infested porta-cabin, which was the public library, despite the fact that 130,000 people live there. Tallaght is now so big, there are two mayors there: a day mayor and a nightmare. The nightmare continues especially if you live in Jobstown, or Darndale, where people are not only unemployed, but also unemployable.
The same happens all over the country: O'Malley Park in Limerick, Ballymun, and Cherry Orchard. So if the Government creates the conditions for crime, by building ghettoes, and faceless, tasteless, and soulless housing estates - which are by their nature anti-communitarian, and fails to build community, and social infrastructure for all- then we will have more and more crime in an endless fashion, and this will destroy the nation.

We all need recreation; it is vital for our sense of well-being. Millions are now being spent on gym equipment for the prisons - so along with teaching inmates how to steal cars in a couple of seconds, they will now emerge as very strong and tough characters as well. Why not provide children with re-creation facilities before prison?
If the Government fail, and they have, then the future is really bleak. In fact I believe, unless we radically alter the direction, Ireland will become Europe's most violent society, where violence will surpass the State's ability to deal with it - and we are close to anarchy now. (In fact there is so much anarchy in the World today that it may be said that history will look back and declare that we are living in the second period of the Dark Ages, from which we are looking for a mechanism to emerge. Perhaps a New City, which will draw man to an interior perfection, by his outward expression in the creation of beauty. Man has reached the very depth of his depravity more than any time in history, now he murders innocent children before they are born, and those innocents now number greater than a billion. Could it be said, that despite the two major wars of the past 100 years where hundreds of millions have been killed, where other regional wars, famine, anarchy, abortion etc have seemed to dominate goodness; are we also emerging from the second Dark Ages, which we have failed to recognise as such.)?

The new city team is aware of these problems and has designed in huge social infrastructure within this city, with parks, walks dedicated to people, with no access to cars or noise - facilities such as hospitals, libraries, public meeting halls, rest homes, retirement homes, nursing homes, etc… and amenities for all, reading rooms, sports facilities, conference facilities, swimming, ice skating…
The architecture will reflect many diverse cultures from Byzantine to Athens, to Florentine, to Baroque, to Modern and the Americas.
The city will thus have quarters, all with distinct differing flavours, but held together as one city: you may find a French Quarter, an Italian Quarter, Iberian and so on - coming together under its Celtic/Irish ness - the Renasita (rebirth) of the true culture of Ireland, which is not drink, drugs or murder.

We have a mandate from the Government to provide rail access to Dublin within 50 minutes to one hour - this will not be a problem - proper, efficient and new transport systems are being looked at, from a metro to high-speed rail.
The purpose of creating a beautiful city fully functional is that it will become a major tourist destination - a "wonder of the world" - in keeping with the Athenian and Florentine traditions. In a word, the world needs such a new city, properly planned, well thought out, taking into account and giving primacy to the human dimension. We then are not building temporary structures, no: we look at the Gothic and Renaissance structure. 'These are eternal.' 'Athens still stands.'
This will be a city, properly positioned, with no artificial or human divisions, in other words there will be no ghettos, no housing estates (housing estates are an invention of the British army, and are by design "fortifications" built for siege, hence their garrison looks - they are not and were not designed for family life as such but our homes will be so. Not to mention the 48,000 who have contacted us with regard to housing.

We are and have been in touch with over 1,900 companies, who have expressed an interest in investing in the world's most exciting city. So we can cherry-pick who we would want for sustainability. We are looking at the re-location of world headquarters of certain companies, such as Boeing whom I represent, among others.
We are shy about manufacturing companies in general, unless highly specialised, as there is a shift toward Eastern Europe, in this regard with labour costs, insurance and manufacturing costs etc, some 50 times cheaper than they are here.

Costs of New City

Not one cent of Irish taxpayers money will be spent on this city. The day you accept money from any government is the day they start dictating the terms and conditions - and political expediency. Then you will have ghettoes, hard stands, toxic dumps and all the other nasties Governments create, rather than solve.
What we have at present is a budget of $200 billion for this New City, made up from funds from the EU Structural funds, funding from the EIB, Financial Institutions and Corporate finance and the private investors, one of whom has offered $15 billion towards this project, another $250 million. We are looking at a city of full employment - full opportunity to develop and where "quality of life" will be paramount.

Location

Near Horan International Airport, we have discovered a 30 square-mile zone, or some 35,000 acres, of land at an evaluation of 1,000 feet, which in itself prove most valuable in time. A street plan has already been posted on the website, www.newcityforthewest.com.

Conclusions

I believe that as a nation, we are somehow "stuck": we don't seem to have any destination as a people. Yes, there is a lot of talk about money and admittedly we are having a second Golden Age, based on technology, and are trying to encourage our young to study more maths, science etc… But the figures are down 23% every year, with less and less being interested in that sector.
We should look at broader fields in education, sustainable education, rather than education towards over specialization, and ultimate redundancy.

The New City is on track. It will be built - work progresses every day in design, planning, and contacts. This New City will break the logjam of our 'stuck ness' and open the prospects of a great future for a great nation, yet to be discovered.

The Pyramids still stand, a reflection of the greatness of the first civilisation, and many of the great monuments built by the Greeks, and Romans, still stand, these were built as eternal structures, something we can learn from. What will be here in this country in 1,000 years to show our legacy?