Have you ever bothered to look at the statues on O’Connell Street? There are the obvious ones of Larkin, O’Connell and, of course, Parnell, but there is also one statue of a character called John Gray. Leopold Bloom in ‘Ulysses’ walked past the statue of John Gray and was equally flummoxed, asking who was yer man? It is interesting that Bloom — a man obsessed throughout ‘Ulysses’ by water — could have been so ignorant about the man who made Dublin’s taps gush with fresh pressurised water.
Looking around at the devastation of the floods all over the country, I thought of John Gray and whether we had a politician of the stature of Gray now. Who was this redoubtable character who has been lost to history? And why would he have anything to do with the predicament we find ourselves in now?
John Gray was a Protestant nationalist, founder of the precursor of the Irish Independent — the ‘Freeman’s Journal’ — a surgeon and a MP, first for the Liberal Party and then the Home Rule party. He was a keen supporter of Daniel O’Connell — in fact, he was the man who raised the money for O’Connell’s statue on O’Connell Street.
But what makes Gray stand out was his determination to rid Dublin of the filthy sanitation that had afflicted the city’s poor for generations. Dublin’s ghettos, swelled by migrants fleeing the famine in the west and south, suffered recurring bouts of cholera and typhus. In response to one of these disasters, Gray, at that stage head of Dublin Corporation as well as the Surgeon General, decided enough was enough. He reacted to these natural disasters by taking on Ireland’s commercial vested interests and creating the best urban water and sanitation system in Europe.
He saw opportunity in disaster; when others panicked, he saw what to do. He embarked on a huge public infrastructure project — the Vartry Reservoir scheme in Wicklow.
Now, just think about our floods and the opportunity they offer. The floods give us a chance to build a public works scheme that ensures these floods never happen again. Gray saw the cholera outbreaks in Dublin as an opportunity to make the city permanently better and we should do the same by building the best flood-prevention system in the world, in the knowledge that climate change will make what happened in the past few weeks a regular occurrence.
Until Gray’s initiative, Dublin’s water was taken from the canals and controlled by the canal companies as well as by some of the rail companies, who owned parts of the canals. Obviously the canal water wasn’t fit for human consumption and was making matters worse for the unfortunates who drank it. In addition, without a highly pressurised water system, firefighting in Dublin was a rudimentary business. Gray sought to change all that, to break the control of the canal and railway companies and create a modern water system. He forced the parliament in London to finance his scheme in the face of opposition from the vested interests.
The scheme included the construction of a large reservoir in the Wicklow Mountains, 520ft above the highest point in Dublin city. The water was then transported to the city through a two-and-a-half-mile tunnel cut 160ft below ground level (a considerable feat in 1860s Ireland). The tunnel is still used to this day. At the end of the tunnel there begins 17-mile-long mains to Stillorgan from where it was distributed throughout the city.
Other than the obvious health benefits provided by the Vartry scheme (which were huge), it brought an end to the fear of fire that had stalked the city for generations.
Fearing the age-old Irish weakness for land speculation ahead of a political rezoning, Gray bought up all the land around the reservoir in Roundwood and sold it back to Dublin Corporation for the same price after Parliament had decided to go with the idea. (Compare this politician’s approach to land speculation with some of his modern counterparts!)
Now let’s consider the opportunity the flooding tragedy presents. We need a new flooding system. This will involve flood gates, flood banks, canals, sluices — in other words, a grand public-works scheme, some of which will be labour intensive as it will involve thousands of lads digging ditches.
But who has an interest, in these straitened times, in financing such a public-works scheme? Well, the obvious place to start is our insurance companies. Insurance companies hate natural disasters, as they have to pay out hugely. This upsets their nice actuarial models about how much cash they are likely to pay out over the course of their policies. Insurance companies are highly liquid. They take your money today and only have to pay out in the event of a claim. Thus they are cash rich. They normally invest this cash in stocks, bonds and property, or some combination of the three. They don’t like floods as it means they have to liquidate their investments to cover the flood claims, so they would prefer to have a proper flood-prevention system.
The State obviously needs to provide a flood-prevention system to the citizen to prevent the horrible devastation we saw in the past few weeks. Finally, given huge unemployment, we could do with providing jobs to guys laid off from the sites of large construction projects that will give them hope and give us better infrastructure. This is precisely what the Americans did in the Depression, starting with the Hoover Dam project.
But these days, the big question is ‘who will finance it?’ With Ireland in cutback mode, anyone suggesting large civic public infrastructure works is regarded as being slightly off the wall — as the mantra is that we have no money. In fact, we have money and loads of it. It’s just a matter of looking for it.
According to the Irish Insurance Federation, insurance companies have €73bn in assets. That is money we have paid to the insurance companies, which is now invested in financial assets. This is a huge amount and is directly related to them being granted a licence to provide insurance to us.
Given that they would like to have no freak weather mishaps over the next 30 years to avoid having to pay out huge amounts, the State should suggest that the insurance companies of Ireland finance the civic project that is a national flooding infrastructure. If they don’t play ball, maybe they should be compelled as a quid pro quo of doing business here that they have to spend some of their Irish surplus on Irish government recovery bonds.
Surely that is a better policy for the Irish State than allowing — in the middle of a credit crunch — billions of euros of Irish insurance premiums to be invested in foreign stock markets by insurance companies who operate here under government licence?
The floods are an opportunity to change. We have the money, the manpower and the ability — all we need is John Gray-style politicians who can see that politics, like economics, is the art of the possible.
On the one hand your concept is important, but you advocate freedom of the markets and let the banks bond holders deal with the risk they took, yet you suggest that we compel the insurance companies to spend on infrastructure that they will not get any return from, now or in the future. Where is the investment return?
These companies thrive on risk and if they remove, or at least reduce the risk by building the flood infrastructure, why would future householders pay a premium for flood risk if there is none there?
Neither a climatologist nor engineer you be. Lads in ditches, what, is this China in the 50’s? Let the river find its course, and let people retreat from their unsustainable locations.
David. This is an excellent article. Unfortunately for Ireland is three decades too late. But despite this, this is the first time I ever heard of John Gray. Unfortunately we do not have anybody even remotely as useful to the people, in the Dail. And if we had, we can presume that the media would be under pressure to undermine such an individual in case of the threat opposed to “our advertising sponsors”. And yet I am hopeful in the sense that the internet might get beyond all of that institutional power broking and public opinion control. This flooding is… Read more »
I thnk that allocating money from the National Pension Reserve in better flood control, and better water control, are far better investments than sticking the money into Anglo Irish Bank or the other useless banks.
No wonder we never heard of John Gray. He cut out the gombeen/ri -off merchants. That is a terrible example to set. Our Tammany Hall politicos don’t like that sort of public service.
THE MORE CASH THAT THE iNSURANCE INDUSTRY HAS TO COUGH UP MEANS HIGHER PREMIA IN THE FUTURE.
Hi again David, The problem with the insurance companies is that it is not in their interest really to prevent ALL risk. An ultimate example to prove the point is that if cars were banned tomorrow there would be no need for car insurance, etc. There is no financial incentive to prevent ‘random risk’ either. All insurers need to do is adjust their models on what they pay out and what can be claimed and what areas can get insurance, etc, adjust premiums, etc, and their problem is solved. They do not need to divert one drop of rainwater. All… Read more »
8000 Soldiers all sitting in barracks….what are they doing?
Grays Anatomy :
I know Water is soft but David is right it is a mechanism to get soft money that is conditional to the Insurance Operating Licence and create lots of employment .Some Toll Bridge mechanism could be used by the Insurance companies to defray their start up costs for infrastructure.
I must walk longer along O’ Connell Street the next time and every other O’ Connell St in the country to find other ‘John Grays’
What about the idiot planners who allowed lands prone to flooding anyway be zoned for residential development? There still is plenty of land perfectly suitable for houses to be built upon, why did we not use it in the boom instead? Why do we all act so surprised when disasters like this happen? We are like the idiots who build houses beside a volcano and then act surprised when they find lava in the livingroom! We don’t need intellectuals and scientists to solve this problem, a pass level junior cert geography student could work this out: live somewhere else, preferably… Read more »
New thinking will need a new incentive model – and marketing. What would one call an alternative illegal tender?
http://transitionculture.org/2009/11/22/a-local-currency-pilgrimage-to-worgl/
I used to think that I was the only person in Dublin who knew who John Gray was .
Once again, David, you are calling for massive State investment in public infrastructure projects both to create a legacy of public wealth, and more importanltly in the short term, to kick start the economy. Your “off the wall” and “mantra” comment also show that you disagree vehemently with the conventional wisdom, preferring a Keynsian attempt to reflate the economy (and for the 1st time in our history we have a hard currency to do just this) to the current McCarthyite ideology of deflation. Among the general class of Talking Heads in Irish economics and politics, from Stephen Collins to Eddie… Read more »
Protestant Ideology :
Independence of thinking and originality of ideas and a sense of bloody mindness have always formed the idea of being free and protestant and maybe if we change our minds and act responsible for our actions we could change everything around us .
coldblow : you have a good point and I have a good idea its a question of mix & match and make up a better idea .
I don’t think we need our politicians to be engineers or weathermen but to properly address these problems. Anyway Cowan wouldn’t be very good at the latter as I remember him saying last week that it was going to get a lot worse before it got better. This was after seeing my parents’ end of terrace house (100 years old next year) on the east bank of Athlone centre shot on last week’s 6 o’c news on RTE. It seemed to be bobbing up and down in the middle of the Shannon and was obviously the prime target for the… Read more »
Now I’ve started I won’t shut up. Might as well hang for a sheep as a lamb. @ Tim I’m also reading DMcW’s book. The otherwise excellent Gen. Game seemed to share the standard left-liberal POV but was otherwise non-judgmental, although this POV probably sees itself as non-judgmental in the same way that somebody with RP thinks he doesn’t have an accent. So you had the ‘idealistic’ baby-boomers getting rich through no fault of their own the way some historians (I was taught by one at college) argue that the British just sleep-walked into empire, acquiring it in a fit… Read more »
New Ideas Emporium – St. Patrick was a Protestant and gave us the initiative to become a nation .It was hundreds of years later that his/our Celtic Church was disenfranchised to Rome Rule .Perhaps we should re-established a New Church of Ideas that will work this time and We RULE this time.
David. Floods, schmuds, who gives a flying fish. Floods have been with us since NOah. The meeja hype over rainfall is NUTS. If you build in a floodplain guess what your house is going too get flooded buster. If you leave silt bulid up over decades well guess what your gonna have rivers bursting banks. And, if the rain gonna fall, heavy. you gonna get flooding,.. and if your house floods you throw out the stuff call your insurance and go buy your new sofa. A new sofa!!!!!!! Regarding old aged folk well this is unfortunate for them and life… Read more »
Folks, like coldblow above, I confess I have not read this article yet, but I wanted to give you this link, which I know you will be interested in; The Site is called “Ireland After NAMA”:
http://irelandafternama.wordpress.com/category/book-reviews/
rading in todays paper here in Gran Canaria, that Michael OLeary CEO of Ryanair has just been awarded one of three “Excellence in Tourism 2009” citations by the Tourism Advisory Council of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands) for his dedication and commitment to the tourist sector here in the Islands, and throughout Spain. He has committed to bringing 4 million new tourists to Spain next year with ultra low fares from every European country. Meanwhile Ireland has imposed a 10 Euro tax on all flights in and out of Ireland,and many of the empty hotels and waterlogged golf courses there are… Read more »
A very interesting article. I had came to the conclusion that the world had gone mad, but now I know I’m wrong. The world has been mad for hundreds of years. I know nothing about John Gray but he seems to have been that rare combination, a decent man with an ability to get things done… From this, it could well be argued he did more for the average Dub than all the patriots and socialist ‘legends’ who have boozers named after them. Back to today; the socialists are arguing for continued impoverishment of the nation to pay bloated public… Read more »
“He forced the parliament in London to finance his scheme in the face of opposition from the vested interests.” – maybe handing over more power to Brussells is not such a bad thing afterall.
Here is a public works scheme which would be a worthy way to spend money, and give people work, and give the country flood defences as well as safe guarded potable water supply for Dublin to supplement its reservoirs in times of drought.
http://www.watersupplyproject-dublinregion.ie/index.php?page=shannon-options-under-consideration
David: Where have you been all week? Up to your oxters in flood waters? Obviously you missed the Climategate gig held here and in blogs all over the world. “we should do the same by building the best flood-prevention system in the world, in the knowledge that climate change will make what happened in the past few weeks a regular occurrence.” Really? That’s so Last year. Weather extremes are always happening somewhere, so it is folly to say that we must build to resist whatever happens with rain, wind or snow. The floods are merely a symptom of how little… Read more »
Folks, having read it now, this article is really about what we have been calling for: an economic stimulus that will provide jobs, infrastructure and demand input from big-business.
Makes a change from current govt policy of cut-the-kids, cut-the-afflicted, blame the public servants and give billions to the private sector banks!
If only BL would listen to DMcW instead of Alan Ahearne.
(..and, tirnanog33, there is no public or civil servant that I know who feels “placated” by what govt is doing to them – although they are using the media to convince you of that.)
Tim, do you really believe you will all collect those big pensions in the coming decades.? Granted Cowan has put the 3 billion that would save the nation from civil strife into your pension fund when he could just leave the status quo in “makebelieve land” and take that 3 billion and use it now to pay your wages and stop crucifying helpless working class people in the private sector.! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zPT9IplkHE “Deco says What about the idiot planners who allowed lands prone to flooding anyway be zoned for residential development?” This could be the next “Deaf soldiers” bonanza, for unfortunates… Read more »
Malcolm Mc Clure says:
If we must live on flood plains then it would be cheaper to build the houses on stilts than dyke out the rivers then pump out the rainwater that falls within. Cars could be parked underneath and kids play there on normal rainy days. It’s a no-brainer solution but way beyond the mental capacity of our planners.
Is this what you had in mind Malcolm:
http://www.soldiersofdestiny.org/tescossolution.htm
Tirnanog33 –
If you are chasing another angle why not focus on the biggest news story of all time CLIMATEGATE.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/198169-Global-Warming-Fixing-the-Climate-Data-around-the-Policy-
Davy boy. I like the spirit of this article, though as usual it falls short on detail. Seems to me that from the evidence of recent article themes that you have been reading up on the physical economic philosophy which made the US so prosperous in the past, namely the ‘American system of economy’, conceived and designed by Alexander Hamilton and promoted by the likes of Fredrick list, Henry Carey who was Lincolns economic adviser, William McKinley, FDR and JFK, and have moved away from that instrument of imperialism, namely the central bank monetarist clap trap you have been espousing… Read more »
bankstershill, of course, we could always trade in zinc (if we re-opened the mines we closed prematurely). We have untold un-tapped-resources – including our “human-capital” (which we are diminishin, by cutting education). Look at: http://www.spiritofireland.ie With the required investment, that’s like having a future-proof-bottomless-well of oil or gas (that Burke DIDN’T give away to Shell!) on our turf; it’s un-tapped, renewable energy that we can use and sell. ALL the people of this country could be as comfortable as Arab Sheiks, but for the cronies who insist on hoarding the majority of the wealth for themselves, while keeping the majority… Read more »
If we could try and frame debates on public policy on the basis of intelligence and acheiving noble and fairminded end results, instead of renewing the old ideological battles that would be progress.
I suppose in the interest of fairness and completeness, it’s only fair that I include a link to the infamous “Trojan horse” that was introduced in the Finance Act 2000. You can read it for yourselves and I hope ye will finally understand how the Celtic Tiger became infected and finally crashed, just like computers do when infected by Trojans. I’m sorry if this link upsets those who like to think that all this bubble mania “just happened” and “we are where we are”. Look at it this way we were given a new Economic Computer, which was designed to… Read more »
Folks, how can this country, ever, hope to afford itself, when the govt., the media controllers, the media prsenters and almost everyone commenting on the media, earns more than 100k pa?
All the people in charge are RICH.
Will they, ever, tolerate discussion of “taxing the rich”?
Apply the hermeneutic of suspicion to everything that you read and hear.
Let’s keep at it!
I believe John Gray was successful because he was bloody mindedness in what he wanted to do and did it. He was cultured in his ways in making this happen ,I dont think ‘we’ have that in our ways and our politics .Ours is more sheepish and insular and devious.That is what got us where we are now.It was meant to happen and whether any good comes out of it remains to be seen. What now worries me is the hidden agenda among the bearded fox’s in the trade unions and the future costs we will all have to pay… Read more »
On another disaster topic-How long will Aer Lingus last before Ryanair takes over the ruins?
If the new Aer lingus CEO sold their slots in Heathrow the unions could keep the gravy train going for another 5 years..
Heathrow has to be the worst airport in the world to fly in or out of anyhow.
insightful article, John Gray sounds like an inspiration, Joyce’s novel nicely brought in. A New Deal (relieft works) etc is needed, I visited the Hoover Dam, supplying water for the unsustainable Las Vegas and surrounding area (& the sight of terrible workers abuse as highlighted by very good documentary on the Discovery channel). The concept was an interesting one but we haven’t the political vision when Mary Hanafin is reported to be happy with social welfare numbers after they seem to have eased out. As Paul Krugman pointed out recently in New York Times, we need to get people back… Read more »
We need more streets named after John Gray. But we must make sure that they are properly planned streets. John Gray – the message of John Gray is very powerful, and completely relevant. Like Michael Davitt a patriot who had to be forgotten – and who also did solved a massive problem in a very simple and effective manner. Davitt was the first to institute what later became ‘organized labour’. Or Parnell and his speech advocating the Boycott mechanism. And it comes down to this. Do the right thing. Think through your objective. Do it in a transparent manner. Never… Read more »
John Gray was a man of principle who understood the concept of joined up thinking, not like our present primitive bunch who are primarily interested in plunder.
David, I read your book “Follow the Money” – you offer a very convincing argument for exiting the Euro.
The Oligarch thing becomes very clear.
I’m now of the opinion that we’re donkeys led by a bunch of chancers.
Tim @ 18 – thanks I have only read it now. I can understand the need to meet between as many people as possible however I dont believe more will meet up only when and until those who have met are in a position to formulate their ideas first on paper as in a ‘white paper’. Then maybe matters might move forward for larger meetings .It only takes a few to have a consensus of ideas so why not do it now.All of you together are clever enough to do that .There is no risk doing that . Had I… Read more »
Posters:
CLIMATE CHANGE IS NORMAL.
Climate Change : Last night the Blue Moon passed .Did many on line notice body pressures not normal to other days ? Pains , aches , bladder, feeling crazy , more funerals etc . The Full Moon causes these . The Earth is a living organism and the heavenly movements do influence it too eg. full tide higher than normal.Since 2002 we have entered from the New Testament to The Age of Aquarius ( Air – element ) and the new climate changes have changed likewise.This is mainly what we are experiencing .Along with that comes : Internet, Mobile Phones,… Read more »
Irish Floods :
The Rain did not cause the floods in Ireland. It was caused by Air Movements and Wind as in ‘ the whistle of the rain’!
John, do you really believe the crap you talk? Watch this instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw
Good weather suitable for farming and allowing societies to grow is only a recent phenomenon. Before 5000 years ago, there is much evidence to suggest that farming was nigh on impossible. And it may be that this unstable weather is back again. I would ask people to read diaries of a 100 years ago and more. Very clear that weather was very fitful as it is now. Do not get me wrong, I believe in green technologies as cheaper self made energy sources. Indeed anything that promotes self reliance is to be lauded and this for me is where this… Read more »
Here is an absolutely outstanding review of Fintan O’Toole’s Ship of Fools in Irish Left Review, far superior to the still excellent Terry Eagleton’s review above. Even Deco’s gonna enjoy this one!
http://www.irishleftreview.org/2009/12/01/book-review-ship-fools-fintan-otoole/
The ‘great ditherer’ is re inventing his dithering on TV 3 and by jaysus the lad from drum con dra will will will ma ma make a gr gr gr great president for us all and lead us into bertieland.
paddythepig, “We need more inventors, innovators & exporters. It’s the only way.” Not that simple: You are right about the fact that we need more innovators, etc. But that is not it. We have plenty of them, but they cannot get any seed-capital because of what the banks/elite did. (I have a client with a patented, prototyped, tooled product that cannot be rolled-out due to the complete absence of credit) What is needed, Paddy, is more input from the wealthy. We have to tax the people who earn €250k+ more than 23%. We have to tax the people who earn… Read more »
Australia voted down carbon law’s. Thank God.
Climategate is getting through despite the orwellian news blackouts and fanatical climate changers world wide.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/81167112-df07-11de-be8e-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
Returning to DMcW’s current topic of flood defenses, and the associated insurance costs got me thinking further about the houses on stilts suggestion. We live in a chronically wet country where many older houses have damp foundations, drafty windows and water running down the walls. After a brief love affair with traditional thatched cottages, educated women soon realized that they were no place to raise a family in this day and age. Then along came that marvellous compendium ‘Bungalow Bliss’ that transformed the face of Ireland. Drive along any road and you can have fun with ‘thats p.57′ or “Oh… Read more »
David , excuse me for not popping here till this hour , but been busy setting up baloons with lights for night time golf game in , well out side Tierra del Fuego and hoping to flog a few houses built grouped around it. I also will Repy to the mail you sent to my Company Email of two years ago the machine that’s on has till yesterday been with my German it guy who lives here and has now settled into ‘Orish’ ways !. But John Gray ?….The Christian Brother’s sponsored my schooling and unless I was mitching ,… Read more »