The BBC has reported that 100 years ago today, the first flight on the island of Ireland took place at Hillsborough in Co. Down. This was undertaken by Harry Ferguson of tractor fame.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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The future of industrial heritage as an interest in Ireland is at stake.
Have you heard anything of interest about IH recently?
Egos and control issues are standing in the way of IH in Ireland.
Gone are the days when an elite group could withhold information.
At the moment, there is an elite and there is the rest of us.
The rest of us have an interest in IH and appreciate being informed.
Even if you don't believe it, fake it or face the consequences.
Keeping the interested amateurs onside keeps the State onside.
Exclude the serious amateur and they will do their own thing,
even if this is not deemed by you to be in your interests.
Perhaps you feel that you own the interest and can control it.
Even if you could, why? An interest shared is an interest expanded.
Rather like money, the more that is spent, the more for everyone.
Makes you wonder, if IH was shared, would there be more for all?
Only way to find out is to open the flow of information and set it free.
Do you believe that you can hold back the tide, King Canute style?
Everyone who is protecting a vested interest thinks they can.
Long term, good will prosper if only because complacency outs.
Do nothing and you will wither on the vine like unharvested grapes.
Only by promotion and participation will the interest progress.
Every journey starts with a single step,
So let the journey to make IH mainstream start in 2010.
No more them and us. We are all experts in some area of IH.
Open up the archives and let the information flow.
Take positive action and establish an information store
Work with the community to get anything and everything concerning IH recorded.
Or invite those in the know to add to your repository.
Respect the knowledge and intentions of all who come and make the most of what they offer.
Keep everyone onside as exclusion fosters resentment.
Only by inclusion will you achieve domination.
People will work for free if they are valued and respected.
Exclude those with alternative opinions and you reduce the value of everything.
No one should feel that they are unwelcome for telling it as it is.
Unique opportunities to promote and develop the resources of IH are offered by the internet.
Positive results will flow from inclusion and involvement.
Only by taking the first step to an open information environment will you see the benefits.
Realising this is the key to everything.
For 2010 is the defining year for IH in Ireland.
Ask those who have dropped out to come back.
Invite those who are unaware to join up.
Leave the petty squabbles about egos at the end of the line and disconnect the track on which they stand.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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I have added another book review to the site - Memory Harbour: Port of Sligo - which is social history centred on the port of Sligo Town.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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Best wishes of the season to all users of my website and looking forward to 2010 when I hope to add many more features to the site. I have been working away quietly on a big project in connection with an aspect of Ireland's industrial heritage and I hope to go live with it by end March 2010. As ever, access to this (and the site generally) will remain free to the public (subject to retention of my copyright in the material). Watch this space, as they say.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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Belfast City Council has commissioned a piece of art to commemorate the industrial heritage of the city. Located on the lower Newtownards Road outside City East Business Centre, Martin Robertson’s sculpture, ‘Let’s Twist Again’ is described thus in the press release from Belfast City Council:
Standing four metres tall, the striking sculpture depicts a piece of rope cut from fabricated stainless steel, reflecting the rich industrial heritage of the area, which included it once being the home to the largest ropeworks in the world.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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I have added another book review - this time a historic publication - which is Leaves from the Biscuit Plant - a PR brochure published by Jacobs (the biscuit company) to commemorate their 75th anniversary.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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Today is the 175th Anniversary of the opening of the railway line between Westland Row and Dunleary. Before all the linguistic purists flame me, Dunleary is a townland north of the present Dun Laoghaire (which was called Kingstown at the time the railway opened).
The line opened on 17th December 1834 did not run through to the present station, but to a temporary terminus adjacent to the West Pier (more or less where the footbridge across the railway line is today).
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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The BBC has reported that the go ahead has been given by NI Environment Minister Edwin Poots to convert the former Barbour thread factory at Hilden to a residential complex.
The plan will see the listed structures adaptively reused and new apartments built on the remainder of the site.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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I have added another new book review. This is Tales of the Permanent Way, a look at the working lives of staff of both IR and NIR involved in the maintenance of the permanent way of the respective railway networks on the island of Ireland.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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The economic storm has hit one of the leading canal boat hire companies on the island of Ireland. If we had a proper Government, this would be the final nail in the coffin of the Ulster Canal demolition - clearly if they cannot make enough money on the existing system, extending it will not lead to an increase in boating (although I can see the spin along the lines of 'if there was a connection to Lough Neagh, we will get more tourists).
All that will happen is that you will get a one off boost as people travel the canal once and never again. In doing so, they will be diverted away from the existing network, depriving it of needed traffic.
Scrap the Ulster Canal proposal now.
Days Hotel Belfast - located in a lovely area of Belfast where the Union Jack flies from every lamppost and the kerbstones are painted blue white and red.
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