Tinsel,
baubles and Christmas trees, miraculously come out as if by magic! Even the BIG
man from the North, invites us to make a list, before “Black Friday” gets us
all excited whilst maxing out our credit cards. Make no bones about it, we
succumb to commercialisation all too easily. Even Santa’s hard working wee
elves are not immune to modern day pressures.
We can see
evidence of Waterford making its annual Christmas statement, with the return of
Winterval and Santa switching on the lights, on Friday 17th November.
This will take place in the heart of the City Centre. Supported live on air by
WLR FM. All this exciting action will take place between John Robert’s Square
and The Apple Market.
You may
also have noticed that preparations are well under way, ready for the official
Winterval Festival launch.
A huge vintage
Ferris wheel has located itself on The Quay, opposite Shaw’s Department Store. You
may just have seen the structure being erected last weekend. This is
apparently, the largest mobile in Ireland. Offering passengers a unique
perspective of the City and unparalleled views across the River Suir. Just
remember to wrap up and maybe bring a warm blanket when going on this, as you wouldn’t
wish to have a cold for Christmas day.
Winterval’s
very successful ice rink, has of course moved to a bigger, better, new
location, the Waterside Car Park, previously the old gas works. This will allow
not one but two ice rinks to be operated. There will be the usual large rink
and a smaller rink, to encourage the wee ones to take up ice skating. This makes
a lot of sense. Previously, the mix of giddy teenagers trying to impress one
another, caused many a collision and safety concerns for the smaller members of
our community.
The move
has caused some consternation, stoked of course by social media. One or two
Facebook posts, indicating that the rink was NOT returning! In reality this has
given the new operators lots of free publicity, creating a frisson of
excitement. Will the new rink deliver a little bit extra this year?
The Apple
Market, Waterford’s newest outdoor venue, continues to programme fresh,
innovative exciting events. There will be a Christmas village located here,
lots of live music and maybe even the opportunity to have an interactive
snowball fight!
With so
much going on, I do wonder, if these Christmassy distractions, will encourage
those who represent us, to have some down time? After all, our Santa list for
Waterford Inc. is not that big, is it?
Well yes it
is!
The Cath
Lab resolution must be at the top of Waterford’s long standing Christmas wish
list. However, the recently published “Terms of reference”, appear, “Surprise,
surprise”, to be anti-Waterford. Why, one wonders, do we have to start every
process quite literally on the back foot! Surely, someone, given the record of
reports for Waterford, had to be influencing the terms of reference, before
they were published and NOT after.
University
status for WIT, has been kicked so far down the road, that yet another
generation of secondary level school leavers are missing out and having to
travel many kilometres to go to a third level university. Waterford Airport has
had no commercial flights for nearly 20 months and Government has been very
quiet on the funding for our North Quays. This wish list, despite numerous opportunities,
would have allowed Ireland’s Three Wise Men (Varadkar, Donohoe and Coveney) to
be the bearers of gifts, our Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
There is
much to look forward locally this festive season. Waterford will no doubt be
supported regional by many a Christmas shopper and visitor.
I hope that
these Dublin centric elves, don’t forget us and remember to deliver the odd
present or two, to kick start our 2018.
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