Wexford lights up for Christmas

Probably the best house in Wexford if not the country for exterior lights must be Walsh's in Drinagh. Each November the owners start to prepare the lights and decorations, checking bulbs and motors for rotating lights. The money they collect goes to local charity. I visit each year and my kids get huge enjoyment out of it. The owners obviously get a kick too as they then purchase new features in January. They put them all away until after Halloween and then get things up and running. The interest in outside lights at Christmas is a relatively new phenomena at year’s end. It adds to the sense of enjoyment. The pictures tell it all. Visiting these lights is part of the run in to Christmas for my kids. This house turns on lights at night fall and off at 9PM. To visit take the N25 towards Rosslare from Wexford to the garden centre, turn left and drive 500M, house on left hand side of a narrow lane. Drive slowly watch out for children of all ages.

Patriotic Duty or Duty Free? Lenihan cuts 4th Green field adrift.

Patriotism is always the last refuge of the rogue. Once more our urbane Minister for Finance is pointing the finger across the border at southern shoppers who go north for a bargain. It’s his view that we should not go north, to further put revenue into “Her Majesty’s Customs & Excise”. Simple really, it’s not patriotic to go up the M1 anymore. This from a Minister who was elected in 2007 on a platform to build a motorway through Tyrone funded by southern tax payers is just another FF double standard. We can pay for the roads but whatever you do, don’t use them! minister Lenihan's real problem is that retail confidence has colapsed and that while in Britain & the North, Brown is trying to do something about it, Brian can do little other than wrap the green flag around himself.

As one of the 3% citizens in the Republic who’s the son of a northerner I beg to differ. I do not think there is anything wrong in the slightest with a citizen going north to shop. I’ve worked along the border and there has been a traditional trade across the border since before the border was set up. Every town has its hinterland and always will. Some of my relatives work in shops in border towns, they’re entitled to a living. Many of the products which are cheaper up north aren’t made in Irealnad or indeed the EU. Why should competition be good for every other EU citizen but not for us? Why is FF against consumers benefiting from a good exchange rate? As George Lee showed in his documentary globalisation means items made for a dollar a day in the far east is put in a container and the middle man makes a mint by moving that container half way around the world. Many of the retailers in Ireland losing sales to the north are multi-nationals. Transferring profits within the chain and out of the state. Where is the loyalty of some of the retailers Minister Lenihan wishes to protect to our community?

What the Minister conveniently forgets is that trade is often 2 ways. While shoppers for some items move north more than £100M is lost to the British exchequer by northern motorists travelling south for fuel. Add to that the revenue generated for the state by Slab Murphy as he legitimately purchases fuel in this state so that it can be “re-exported” with a minimal processing and turns up on forecourts all over the North. Slab must be asking himself what does a man have to do to get any recognition from this ungrateful state for developing his added value business that generates the hard cash that keeps schools, hospitals and FAS execs in clover!
Given the global and open market that exists since 1992 why should Irish citizens not be able to take advantage of what every other EU citizen is entitled to? I always thought FF were a party that wanted a 32 county state and were themselves a 32 county party? Republican during a boom but little Irelander during a bust.
Strange that these people’s money is good enough to accept in Drumcondra when they come south to Croke Park on All Ireland final day but ours is not to be shared for Christmas Day. Come Cheltenham in Spring every builder in the country will queue in the almost completed Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport to head off to represent this state at the racing and card playing festival, you won’t here any reminder here about patriotism. Indeed if you look closely you’ll probably see one waving a tricolour as an Irish winner is led into the enclosure. So; a woman going north to save a few bob to make ends meet when family finance is tight is unpatriotic, a man over in Cheltenham blowing cash to beat the band is one of the lads. Spare me the wrap the green flag around me guff, Peoples living standards are more important. Our republic is getting stranger.

If it’s November it must be Christmas

Last week I called by my local Dunnes Stores to see that the Halloween masks and pumpkins had disappeared. It was as if a magic wand had been waved and off they were gone only to be replaced by the Christmas line before Halloween. This week after Halloween I popped into my local Tesco to find that the Christmas trees have arrived. Well I accept that some parts of the country were covered with snow last week and it makes good sense from the point of a dispersed or large family to be thrifty and squirrel away items well in time before Christmas but the crass commercialistion of Christmas is already beginning to grate.

When you think about it the Christmas TV ads must be made in the Summer. Booking studio time puts the preparation back to early Summer and the planning and conceptualisation back to Spring. Booking Christmas parties into hotels, lining up the entertainments although this year it may be more frugal than previous years follows a similar timetable. Christmas comes but once a year but the reality seems to be that you need the other 364 days to prepare for it! What concerns me more is that Dublin’s Lord Mayor this week turns on the lights on Dublin’s Christmas tree! The reason given is that Dublin city needs to attract in shoppers from the suburbs and even Newry. If Dublin does this in ’08 what’s the bet Wexford will do this next year?

It’s not a new phenomena. Many years ago I passed through Liege in October. On a bright Autumn day under the Belgian sunlight Santa Claus was arriving at the city’s main department store. Needless to say I made my excuses and left! My best friend once worked in Golden Discs and each December you could never meet for a pint until Christmas Eve because he’d be worn out working behind the counter 2 days in a row for the month of December. What genuinely concerns me is that commercial interests are taking over a time that should be set aside for families. Fair play to RTE who do not allow Christmas songs to be played before December 1^st. howeve in the past few years Christmas is arriving earlier and earlier into our shops, it’s here long before Halloween.

I think that if commercial interests move forward the calendar should we not look at perhaps closing shops on Christmas Eve or at least for a half day. Think about shop workers. By the time you close up, square the cash and bank it, you’re lucky to be home on Christmas Eve by 8 pm. Not much time left there for the mince pies and Christmas cake before you tuck excited kids into bed. For many Polish and East European families, Christmas Eve is actually a more important day than Christmas Day so should we consider making Christmas Eve a bank holiday or at least a half day ordering shops and commercial activity to shut by 1 pm?

I believe there’s a clear and unanswerable case for the state to look closely at the retail trade and regulate opening times. Supporting the retail trade has been patriotic to paraphrase Brian Lenihan. As they retail brands made by children and poorly paid workers in a third world sweat shop, sold by a 6^th year student paid a pittance on a Saturday afternoon to a customer who is over charged in comparison to the UK high street, is it any wonder this customer is starting to get cynical? The new cathedrals of Irish consumerism, Dundrum town Centre, Liffey Valley have become the religion for a new market era. The faithful respond by devoting every waking hour to the pursuit of acquisition. To challenge St Bernard and his BOGOF is a heresy in modern Ireland. Just as early Christian saints must have seemed exotic with names like Killian, Columba or Brigid, the modern generation fall for their post modern equivalent of Prada, Karen Millen & Principles as the spread a new message as equally attractive as any gospel. Just as Moses was found in a basket on the banks of the Nile, you can now fill your basket at River Island.

Should we not look at how in Germany the retail trade closes on Saturday afternoon? Should we go back to allowing Sunday opening in the 4 Sunday’s before Christmas? Should we not look at finding a way to allowing family life exist on one day a week away from the pressure of consumerism? There’s a strong case for regulation but given the current climate where Dundrum Town Centre switched on their lights last night I don’t think this government will move on the matter.

In the meantime, may I take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Christmas!!