You know it is Summer when Spraoi arrives!

As you get older the years come more and more quickly and 2016 is no exception. It seems like it was only yesterday when we were all getting excited, ready for last year’s festival and low and behold the 2016 event is now upon us.

“The Spraoi Weekend”, as it has now become known locally, takes place this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is so good to see that the Festival programme is bigger and better than ever. This has to be one of those very special events that Waterford people actually come out in hordes to support and I, for one, am delighted that TV and their wonderful crew are once again reconnecting Spraoi with the very heart of the City.

To me, the event works so well, with the parade winding its way down the very spine of the Waterford City. The fireworks exploding over the River Suir and of course spontaneous street theatre right across, and I mean right across, the City Centre and not confined to the VT, our leaning tower of investment!

Other organisers take note. The very best Waterford has to offer, starts by incorporating the whole of the City Centre, which in turn means the event is supported in huge numbers. Squeeze or concentrate your event(s) into the wrong areas and you get very little support. The businesses who get behind Spraoi, support Spraoi and “love” Spraoi, for it gives them back much needed footfall across the WHOLE City. It truly is a pan-City event that has, to quote James May, “the fizz” and somehow manages to capture the imagination of young and old.

We have a model for event organisation that has developed organically here in Waterford. A format that works and has adapted to changing and challenging times (financially). The event has weathered the political storms around national funding and has, I have no doubt, managed to steer through the maelstrom of local politics that is needed to ensure continued support from City Hall and the wider Council remit.

Spraoi is a Waterford success story. But sadly it is only one of a lesser breed and we need to make sure that if we wish to compete with the Galways of Ireland then we need to drag, pull and elevate our other events to a similar high level of excellence.

As I have said many a time, in print, we have the people, with the skills, we just need to get the powers that be, to make brave decisions, and actually employ the right people to deliver.

We are a small City that sometimes demonstrates a village mentality. This mould needs to be cracked and we need to step away from using the same old broken formulas, regurgitated time and time again, seeking out the right people to bring our other events up to the high standards set by Spraoi.

In fact it is not only Festivals that need our attention. Many other projects around the City need that injection of “new blood”, with innovative and creative ideas, which will drive events to another level. Yes, it is very hard for originators to let go, but to build a better brand, a better City and County, we need to do just that. If that means paying the right people, then we must find the means to do so.

When I look at the potential of where we could take Waterford, in terms of being an attractor for investment and tourism, I often wonder if I am seeing these possibilities through rose tinted glasses. Yet, when I speak Waterford people, they too can see this potential. They just do not yet have the leaders or facilitators they feel that they can follow, to deliver on what is an untapped latent potential.

Urban renewal, Michael Street Shopping Centre, SDZ on the North Quay, footbridge across the River Suir, Ireland’s Ancient East.....etc are all potential game changers for Waterford. But do we have the “drivers” in place to actually deliver for the people of this great City and County?

Enjoy Spraoi and remember to look after your City this weekend!

Cinderella’s ugly sister!

Well that’s what it feels like!

Like the story of Cinderella we in Waterford, once again feel like one the ugly sisters, unwanted, having lost out on the judging for the 2020 European Capital of Culture. Galway will go to the ball having put her best foot forward and by all accounts her glass slipper, on judgement day last week, was worn with panache and style. Of course the fact that the judging took place at the very start of the Galway Arts Festival, must have given them a significant start in the race for the top step of the podium.

However, the judging dates would have been well know in advance and our Three Sisters Team would have been aware, that we were competing against the gale force wind that ultimately turned around at halftime to become a hurricane force for the second half.

We all witnessed the live streamed pictures of the people of Galway, watching on a big screen, in Mainguard Street, in real time. Celebrating wildly, as the announcement was made from The National Concert Hall, in Dublin. The City of Tribes came out in their hordes to support the bid process. They celebrated as if Galway’s was being announced as a World Cup or Olympic Games host!

There was so much passion and joy openly displayed after the announcement. You got a sense that having gone to ALL the trouble of setting up a big screen, for the live stream, they ALL believed that they would NOT lose.

Maybe that is the crux of Galway’s many success stories. Maybe they just believe deep down that they are the best City in Ireland. Maybe, just maybe, they will, collectively, move hell or high water to do what it takes to succeed.

Well, Friday 15^th July 2016 just proved all of the above.

What of our Three Sisters bid?

I note once again the many knockers and key board warriors, commenting across the many social media platforms. Where were you when the “call to arms” was made to put your shoulder to the wheel to help the bid?

Therein lies our problem. We will never be able to compete with a Galway, as there is not a sense of togetherness across our City, never mind the whole County. As for across the three counties who formed our bid – don’t start me on this. Just measure the fallout from the ongoing Boundary Commission looking at Ferrybank! The arguments over who should have influence over our Port and so on!

Yes, we could very well argue that we did not do enough on the judging day. We should have had FREE car parking ALL day to flood the City with mums, dads and children. Summerval should have identified Wednesday 13^th July as a key date and the City streets should have been buzzing to the sound of street music, street entertainers and spontaneous shows. All our annual festivals, should have been represented in John Robert’s Square. The City should have had a world display of tricolour flags. After all are we not the home of the Irish Tricolour? Much, much more engagement should have been made. But above all we, the people, did not do enough to support this bid.

The powers that be also need to be brave enough to pick the right people, if we are to bid for future projects like the 2020 European Capital of Culture. All too often we see glimpses and signs of cronyism that will ultimately hold us back. Seek out our talented people, engage them and work with them.

Do we always want to continually be the nearly City? No one wants that.

Galway celebrates the 2020 hosting.

So, let us make the changes. Let us get the right people, to do the appropriate jobs, from the very start. Galway is not unique in getting this part of the process correct – it is just they have been doing it for years! They seem to have managed to find a way, to reach the very hearts of their citizens. But I know that here in Waterford, we have beating hearts also.

This Ugly Sister will one day go to the ball, wearing both glass slippers. We just need to find pair of slippers that fit!

Tears of joy and sadness.

On Sunday 10^th July there was a plethora of sporting delights to whet your appetite.

The Munster Final between Waterford and Tipperary, my own Andy Murray chasing a second Wimbledon Men’s Singles title, the British GP, World Superbikes, Scottish Open golf, European Athletics Championships and of course the European Championship Football Final between Portugal and host France.

If you were in any way NOT sporty it really was rather difficult to miss the sporting headlines. Last Sunday really was one of those days where sport was everywhere – local, regional, national and international.

As with all sporting occasions there are winners and those who come second, third and unfortunately last. For competitors and participants, each finishing position creates its own emotional rollercoaster and I cannot fathom, just what it must feel like to compete at such a high level. My own sporting endeavours never reached those giddy heights!

What is a given, are the emotions that are shown and displayed at the end of any sporting encounter, raw, visceral and spontaneous.

Lewis Hamilton screaming, whooping and hollering on his radio, Andy Murray holding back the tears whilst clinging tightly to that gold trophy on the auld BBC, relay runners, giving group hugs and kisses on the track in Amsterdam, Ronaldo hobbling around the pitch with his busted knee, in the Saint-Denis, Stade de France and the sheer joy of the young Tipperary hurlers lifting the Munster Final Cup. ALL of these winners give us, the supporters, a huge emotional high that we can carry for days and even weeks.

The other side of the sporting coin is that for every winner there has to be a loser and with losing there comes the inevitable inquest as to why and how that just happened!

On Sunday in Limerick and on RTE we witnessed extremely emotional lows with our very own fighting Deise men, distraught and inconsolable from a Munster Final loss. A loss where they appeared to have been out muscled by stronger more aggressive players and in the cold light of day we were simply beaten by a better team.

From loss and disappointment comes the hope that better things are on the horizon. I’m sure that we will see a resurgent Waterford tackling the All Ireland, with renewed determination. Our band of brothers will be reminded of the emotional lows that they felt on Sunday 10^th July 2016 and this will surely stir the necessary passion to drive the Team forward to greater glory and a trip to Dublin later this year.

With the Munster Final gone, what next I hear you cry!

On Wednesday 13^th July, it was Judgement Day, for the Three Sisters bid for European Capital of Culture 2020. The European judging panel will be visiting our City, along with Wexford and Kilkenny, to see who will be placed first, second or third. With the winning announcement to be made on Friday, 15^th July.

From the tears of sadness on Sunday we NOW have the chance to do our bit, to help Waterford Wexford and Kilkenny get over the line and beat Galway and Limerick to first place, in our competition for this title.

Look on this, if you like, as a sporting competition where we need to flood the City Centre with the people of Waterford. They are the best supporters in Ireland and let us show the judges, through conversation and craic, that we have far more to offer than the likes of Galway and Limerick. We all know that Waterford has what it takes but we just need to be encouraged and cajoled, to show that raw emotion, so evident on the terracing when wearing the white and blue.

This is our last chance to impress and get this bid over the line. A chance for Waterford to be top of the pile and a European Capital of Culture.

On Friday 15^th July we want to win. I hope that you did your bit, came into the City Centre on Wednesday and helped to make Waterford shine. #BitForTheBid

PS It was great to be Scottish on Sunday – tears of joy! 

Smiles through gritted teeth!

As each day goes by I look more & more like Shrek!

I was fortunate to attend last week’s Council meeting to elect the new Metropolitan Mayor, or Metro Mayor as it has now been shortened to, of Waterford City.

As a side note I still read, via the interweb and social media, that there is continued confusion as to why we have two Mayors.

Yes, we have one “Senior” Mayor for the City and Council, who oversees the full plenary Council meetings of 32 Councillors and we have a Metropolitan Mayor of Waterford City, who oversees the Council’s Metropolitan District meetings of 18 Councillors. In addition there are the Comeragh District, 6 Councillors, and Dungarvan/Lismore District, 8 Councillors, neither of which has a Mayor, but they each have a Chairperson. In the future they may well wish to elect their own Mayors, in which case we could end up with four – confused, you may well be!

Anyway back to last week.

At a packed City Council Chambers, on the first floor of the Council buildings on The Mall, we awaited the election, nominations and voting on what turned out to be a two horse race, between Councillor John Hearne (SF) and Councillor L. Cha O’Neill (Ind). You can pre-judge how the voting will go just by looking around the Chamber and counting the number of supporters each candidate has in the public gallery. There were substantially more John Hearne supporters than Cha O’Neill so there would be no surprises on the night.

The order of Mayoral Office candidates was agreed at the very first amalgamated Council meeting, some two years ago, under a system called The D'Hondt Method. This proportionately allocates seats, or in this case positions, based on voting averages. Take into account the supplementary agreements made between the various pact groupings and you could have literally put your house on John Hearne getting the gig.

As is the process with elections, the two candidates still had to be nominated and seconded by fellow Councillors. The Chair also asked for any additional candidates to come forward – but alas none would be selected to add spice, to what would be a tame meeting. It was during this process that we heard the Proposers talk about their candidate and we listened to all manner of contributions that each contender had made to the Council and their Community.

A packed Press Centre!

There was even a suggestion that due to the high number of votes received by Councillor Hearne, at the last elections, he should have been a shoe in for Mayor and even Plenary Mayor. But the fact is at the last Local Council elections we were not voting for a Mayor, we were electing Councillors!

Maybe we do need to have elected Mayors and this would add a whole new dynamic to our local politics. We might even get a Boris!!!!!

Votes cast, there was no surprise that Councillor John Hearne was duly elected by a massive landslide majority of support.

For me the most interesting part of the meeting was after the votes were cast when Councillor after Councillor quite clearly spoke through gritted teeth about how they would support this historic new SF Mayor for Waterford City (Metro Mayor).

Clearly they were playing to the galleries of press in attendance, as I have seen no evidence over the last two years of certain Councillors supporting the opposition! In fact I would go further and say that deep down, many didn’t wish for a SF Mayor, but due to the pact and The D'Hondt Method they had little choice.

So, going forward will we see the Entente Cordiale continue throughout 2016 and into 2017?

David v a Goliath

I would hazard a guess that we will be back to normal at the next Council meeting, where swords will be drawn and normal hostilities will resume. Politics will never change!

As we are still at the bottom of the economic league table, I do wonder if a SF and FF Mayoral combination can be our Wales/Iceland to get us competing with the big boys? I wouldn’t put my house on it!