clearys

[bootboy]

it was actually ok higher end than most but while the store made poor choices the argument for o connell street becoming like it is has drove out shoppers now
i hate o connell street its dirty scummy even pennys ill use mary street instead
moore street losing its traders parnell street is just rough too, DCC the garda and the hse need to work together tourism is big business it pays for the junkies benifits free travel etc

Jeez, you are in fine fettle this morning Miss. Good points . I'd certainly vote for you .

[nonpareil]

Come to Limerick.
Far less shitehawks than Dublin.

[Theomegaman]

Very sad news about the iconic clearys swiftly shutting there doors, many staff spent a lifetime there to be told go home that is it gone...
clearys is a landmark im pretty sure many have met someone under clearys clock, the window disply at chirstmas i remember as a kid going there on the 8th of December when we go to Dublin to see santa clearys santa been the best,

is this closure down to the disintegration of dublin main street, which has our history deeply ingrained down to the bullet holes in the gpo, i moved to dublin some time again and the vast difference between o connell street then and now and even my childhood is vast..

today a once thriving street with its beauitful buildings has become a playground for junkies dealers beggers and homeless.. fast food pound shops taking over closed stores the once beauitful buildings becoming grubby shabby, ann summers is now the most high class store..

are we to be surprised its become a mecca for junkies when they stuck a needle in the middle of it?

homelessness drug use are issues people must go somewhere... but offering housing if we had does not work until these issues become mental health issue the garda have lost control if they remove them there bitched at and can only move them on there not enough garda to police dublin dont mind o connell street..
i saw tourist taken pictures on the quays trying awkardly to find some angle which didnt have a junkie..

clearys survived the easter rising but it could not survive this government and wave of social issues we have created. so much for big recovery our tds are telling us we have

seems dublin of the rare auld times is dying

Brilliant post Annabel. It is so sad and also disgusting that this has allowed to happen to Clearys and O Connell Street. I also agree that the recovery is not what it's being made out to be. Figures and people are being manipulated. If this can happen to such an iconic store and 400 people loose their jobs the government should be ashamed of itself.

I remember as a kid O Connell street being the centre of everything in Dublin nobody would go anywhere else.
Its sad to think next year is the centenary celebration of the rising against the British and we have one of the central places and buildings closed what next The Gresham ????


It is a sad day to be a Dub.

[slavetoyou]

Very sad news about the iconic clearys swiftly shutting there doors, many staff spent a lifetime there to be told go home that is it gone...
clearys is a landmark im pretty sure many have met someone under clearys clock, the window disply at chirstmas i remember as a kid going there on the 8th of December when we go to Dublin to see santa clearys santa been the best,

is this closure down to the disintegration of dublin main street, which has our history deeply ingrained down to the bullet holes in the gpo, i moved to dublin some time again and the vast difference between o connell street then and now and even my childhood is vast..

today a once thriving street with its beauitful buildings has become a playground for junkies dealers beggers and homeless.. fast food pound shops taking over closed stores the once beauitful buildings becoming grubby shabby, ann summers is now the most high class store..

are we to be surprised its become a mecca for junkies when they stuck a needle in the middle of it?

homelessness drug use are issues people must go somewhere... but offering housing if we had does not work until these issues become mental health issue the garda have lost control if they remove them there bitched at and can only move them on there not enough garda to police dublin dont mind o connell street..
i saw tourist taken pictures on the quays trying awkardly to find some angle which didnt have a junkie..

clearys survived the easter rising but it could not survive this government and wave of social issues we have created. so much for big recovery our tds are telling us we have

seems dublin of the rare auld times is dying

I would speculate that it is due to what we might call globalisation. It is happening in every city in the country if not the world. before and during the boom suburbia developed and the city and county planners gave the go ahead for vast shopping centres in greenfield sites which had in the majority multinationals as tenants therefore isolating the local businesses from the footfall that crossed those centres thresholds. City centres have also had new shopping centres built in them and again it is the large multinationals that are anchored in them.
The corner shop has disappeared only to be replaced by franchised units, the local computer and white goods store is competing with the likes of Currys and Harvey Normans, the local clothing shop is up against Top Shop, Next, and so many more. Starbucks is another prime example of David and Goliath. The rent in these units would have been way too much for the smaller trader, now that has probably changed but maybe too late. City centres and towns are full off boarded up units due to the customer migrating to the suburban retail out lets. We are all guilty in this in a small way as we will shop in the larger stores of convenience and price.

As for the junkies, the institutions of the past are responsible for a lot of them. The church being the main culprit, women throne out of home into laundries because of the sin of being pregnant, men put into church run homes, a lot of people were abused and tortured in these places and it is the damage from them that leads people to drink and drugs and then their children are born into there same system so it nearly becomes a self fulfilling destiny. Paedophiles also damaged so many children, some were again members of the church but not all. It just this and mental health that are the main factors in what you see, it's all to easy to blame the government for everything, but again ordinary people from the past stayed silent when the abuses were going on. Different times I know but nonetheless this silence subjected many to a horrible life.

What is the answer, it is to try break the cycle of being in the system and to give these people hope. Some of these people probably have no hope as it would be almost impossible for them to receive the care they need. This is not an ideal world so their will be those who slip through the net.

If every junkie was culled and every scumbag shot and the slate wiped clean, that may clear up the streets but it is society that has caused this and again we are all apart of it. I would think that the problem will only be cured by natural selection where the weak will die off and in the meantime if new systems and protocols are put in place like there have been the the cycle might break. But even to this day HSE care unit staff area abusing patients, so again it is society and the people in it that are causing this and this may very well always be the case.

[whoseyourdaddy]

I feel very sorry for the staff there.

I always found them friendly and genuine people and they didn't deserve the crude and abrupt closure they were met with yesterday.

I think they suffered with a clueless, unimaginative management who ran the place into the ground in recent years.

[Dub Lad]

Clerys used to be an iconic store- but in recent years it would be the last big store you would think of to get something. I thought it was the big store for the Northsiders and few Southsiders went there.

Was it not a bit old fashioned? Then there was the flood damage and it closed for a while.

I haven't read about it but who gains out of this - developers?

Who owns it? Is it some American or other ?

The Americans who bought it has just sold it, they were a vulture fund, the new owners who are Irish I believe called in the liquidators, I think they did that to fuck and screw as many people as possible out of money before re-opening the store.

It's not old fashioned, it's up to date with an awful lot of fancy brands.

As for the junkies, it does seem to be getting worse and worse, every city has it's problems but, nothing is being done it seems and I do feel sorry for tourists being accusted by junkies who apparantly fucking never have money to get the "bus back to navan" wtf is up with that they all say the same story, the begging, stopping people in the street, so many scumbags.

[oldfool]

Well written and thought provoking. We are watching all our town centres slowly dying due to nelect.

[Clueless]

I thought that there were major regeneration plans for the Moore street to Oconnell street block ??

[warmcome]

A term referring to someone addicted to psychoactive drugs, opiates in particular, and especially those using heroin (an opiate). The term was coined during WW1 when heroin or morphine addicts collected and sold scrap metal (junk) for a higher price to buy their drugs. After this, heroin and morphine themselves began to be known as "junk" and the users of said drugs became known as "junkies".

Heroin user is good too .

[warmcome]

Trying to make money in a department store is old hat with online now such a factor. I expect the
site/building could be used for residential units.