Nature of Rural Community

[Ferdinand]

I had quite an interesting conversation with a friend who is now (at the age of 60 or so - quite a story involving radio hams and a lighthouse) affianced to an Irish coal and oil dealer in the middle of the remote South.

Down there there is little concept of village centre, and the countryside is still in "townships", which are groups of what are effectively smallholdings, in a landscape which has never undergone the process of enclosure. It sounds not unlike a crofting community in some aspects.

Interestingly, she says that there is no concept of the "public footpath" as there is in all parts of Britain, so if you want to walk somewhere, you go on the roads and wear hi-viz.

It shows the need for Planning Process to be highly contextual.

Ferdinand

 

[ProDave]

I have had a holiday in the south of Eire and know what you mean.

Where we live is in the township of Ardross. A term I had only perviously heard used in South Africa (with a very different meaning) before I came to Scotland.  Our little group of houses comprises about 10 dwellings that will probably in time rise to maybe 15 when all the available land in this group is built on.  The local planning policy has a presumption agains new houses in the "hinterland" unless they fit within an established group of dwellings like ours (ours was an infill plot in that group)

It is a strange concept to get so many small groups of houses compared to the south of England where there are more concentrated villages, but you soon get used to it and I quite like it.

As to footpaths, one memorable occasion in Eire we were looking for a path that should have existed to climb a mountain. While we were parked in a field entrance some farmers came by driving some cattle up the road to another field. After having a chat and all that he simply offered that we leave the car parked in his field entrance and cross 2 of his fields and we would find the path. I can't see many farmers in England offering that.

In Scotland we are years ahead and have the right to free access to the countryside (with a few sensible limits) so if you want to walk accross a field you can do so and generally nobody worries about you doing so. There are not so many footpaths up here as arguably they are not needed as you don't all have to stick to the same path. That does present some challenges as climbing some mountains up here, you won't find anything resembling a decent path until you are some way up and all the different approaches converge.

[SteamyTea]

One beauty of an English footpath is that is can form a natural queue, and we all like that down here

[IanR]

18 minutes ago, ProDave said:

In Scotland we are years ahead and have the right to free access to the countryside

Sounds like anarchy to me

[Ferdinand]

Two other comments on Ireland were that the road system was like UK pre-Motorways, and that rural Ireland was bl**dy dangerous for cyclists.

I introduced her to the concept of "Scottish Miles", and we agreed that "Irish Miles" also exist.

Interesting that Irish road deaths are also far higher on all measures, despite a population density of a third of that of the UK. Motorways = good for road safety.

Ferdinand

 

[ProDave]

The Irish roads were indeed "interesting" you could be driving along a beautifully surfaced stretch for a couple of miles (with those EU signs along the side of the road) and suddenly, without warning, you transitioned to the "old" rough pot holed road that threatened to shake your car to bits until you slowed to third gear.

I loved the "accident black spot" signs as well.

[DeeJunFan]

Ah Irish roads are great.  You can be driving down a 3 lane motorway and the speed limit will be 80KPH and then hit a wee lane with grass in the middle and the speed limit is 100KPH.

The Irish government are still trying to "catch up" with EU speed limits.  They just gave all the roads in Ireland default figures and as the complaints/accidents happen they are reviewing each road!  Crazy!

They have also updated the accident blackspot signs.  Some now have death toll figures.   Something like 87 94 Killed on the Roads in Louth.

Town lands are all the rage.  Most Irish villages follow a fairly set pattern.  Straight road through Mixed commercial/domestic on "Main Street" (Only Street) and a chapel at one end of the road.

Perhaps a newish Petrol station just on the outskirts and then a run-down (or closed down) shop with out of commission petrol pumps in the middle of the main street.  Footpaths optional and normally never consistent.

Depending on the County (if it's tourist orientated or not) There will be a shop with loads of old tat out the front.  

And Pot Holes are a major election issue in ireland, Pot Holes and Peat Bogs.  That's the key to getting elected in Ireland.

Pot Hole example, And this was only last year.  Yes 2015!

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Pre-EU, the roads in RoI had a blanket 50 mph speed limit, IIRC, but to be frank, you couldn't have done 50 on any of them anyway.  I used to drive over to the West Coast a fair bit in the late 70's/early 80's, and the trip from Dún Laoghaire across to Clare could take all day.  "Main" roads back then had a yellow line marking the left hand lane and were just about three lanes wide.   The left lane was for horse drawn traffic and tractors, not cars, so you drove down the centre, pulling over to the left if there was anything coming at you or if you saw someone coming up from behind who was mad enough to want to overtake.

The contrast with my most recent trip over, where the trip from Dublin down to Cahir only took a couple of hours on a good motorway, was remarkable.  What was less wonderful was a drive up from Rosslare to North Antrim about 15 years ago, where bloody awful white rendered bungalows were being built all over the place, because of the lack of effective planning controls.  It seemed that, with the boom in the economy a good number of people were just building a new house in the field alongside their old one.  The town land where my grandmother was born and grew up is now a mix of old longhouses and pretty dire modern bungalows, not the place it was 30 years ago at all.  Many of the houses built during the boom were pretty shoddily put up, too, hence the clamp down on building regulation and enforcement in recent years.

[DeeJunFan]

This is Irish politics

 

[DeeJunFan]

41 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

Pre-EU, the roads in RoI had a blanket 50 mph speed limit, IIRC, but to be frank, you couldn't have done 50 on any of them anyway.  I used to drive over to the West Coast a fair bit in the late 70's/early 80's, and the trip from Dún Laoghaire across to Clare could take all day.  "Main" roads back then had a yellow line marking the left hand lane and were just about three lanes wide.   The left lane was for horse drawn traffic and tractors, not cars, so you drove down the centre, pulling over to the left if there was anything coming at you or if you saw someone coming up from behind who was mad enough to want to overtake.

The contrast with my most recent trip over, where the trip from Dublin down to Cahir only took a couple of hours on a good motorway, was remarkable.  What was less wonderful was a drive up from Rosslare to North Antrim about 15 years ago, where bloody awful white rendered bungalows were being built all over the place, because of the lack of effective planning controls.  It seemed that, with the boom in the economy a good number of people were just building a new house in the field alongside their old one.  The town land where my grandmother was born and grew up is now a mix of old longhouses and pretty dire modern bungalows, not the place it was 30 years ago at all.  Many of the houses built during the boom were pretty shoddily put up, too, hence the clamp down on building regulation and enforcement in recent years.

The boom time houses are all dire.  The only thing worse are boom time apartments.  I'd say a good 75% of the boom time apartments are death traps (No fire safety of any kind).  The amount of remedial work required in some of them makes it possibly cheaper to just knock them.

A colleague of mine was buying an apartment in Dublin (350K at the time about 4 years ago) And he was handed an engineers report when he went for the viewing outlining how each apartment needed over 100k of remedial work to be carried out and there was a 5 Million euro worth of work required for the shared spaces to bring the place up to standard (They were 5 years old)

Priory Hall the first of its kind had to be abandoned by the residents and the Government were left to house the residents in Hotels and other accommodation.  This is the reason for the new Design/Build Certification.  The Govt are no longer liable for any Dodgy builds.  But every apartment complex that has had the same or worse problems since then has been quietly hushed up in the hope that the extent of the issue never gets any headlines.  

A lot of roads are also in a shambles because the Big developers all went out of business before carrying out works to improve local access roads and the like.

And there are so many roundabouts to nowhere

[Declan52]

I live in one of these rural communities. 1 shop 1 petrol station 1 chapel 4 pubs, we have our priorities right here. If I go for a run you have to pick the roads that have footpaths or you will end up wiped out if you run on the road. 

Reason there was so many deaths on the roads in Eire was you didn't have to sit a driving test until recently. Stick a L plate up and away you go. Not good on the winding roads we have here.

[DeeJunFan]

You have to love it.

This is a picture of the area around my site.  2 Red circles one is the local pub, and the other our site.

We even have pubs when there is nothing else around.

He used to keep pigs in the back yard of the pub until the smoking ban and he turned it into the smoking area.

[ToughButterCup]

Eeeeer! Do you lot work for the Irish Tourist Board eh?

[warby]

19 minutes ago, DeeJunFan said:

You have to love it.

This is a picture of the area around my site.  2 Red circles one is the local pub, and the other our site.

We even have pubs when there is nothing else around.

He used to keep pigs in the back yard of the pub until the smoking ban and he turned it into the smoking area.

MMM smoked bacon

[DeeJunFan]

12 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

Eeeeer! Do you lot work for the Irish Tourist Board eh?

"Faulty Ireland"  as the Yanks call it!

http://www.failteireland.ie/