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CHRISTMAS IS COMING. There, we said it.
But that means brilliant things are on the way too, and a truly Dublin Christmas experience for kids has always involved visiting Santa in Clerys.
The department store may be no more, but the same cannot be said for Santa. He’s simply moved to pastures new. And yes, it’s the actual Clerys Santa.
The entire workshop from Santa’s famous O’Connell Street home is moving kit and kaboodle to the I Believe Christmas Village in the Custom House Quarter.
And doesn’t he look happy.
“Santa has made a home in Dublin for the last 17 years,” an I Believe spokesperson told TheJournal.ie.
Everything will be the same in his new location.
Santa’s workshop and the I Believe Christmas Village will be open from 26 November.
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Please journal..can ye wait till Halloween is a memory before posting photos of the big red fella…
Santa will always work for free anyway, his contract is close to the 0hours contracts also, Sc** that bought this company and sold it off straight away for a profit! Which the government allowed and put all these people out of work before Christmas! REMEMBER WHEN VOTING THIS YEAR LAB/ FG DURING THEIR TIME IN GOVERNMENT 5YEARS THEY PUT NO PROTECTION FOR WORKERS RIGHTS AND STILL HAVE NOT!
Spot on Joe.
It’s worth reminding people that the asset strip of this landmark store was another example of the Irish state protecting the interests of domestic and international capital over the welfare of the majority citizens as it has always done.
The sellers Gordon Brothers manipulated the corporate and legal structures for the efficient asset stripping the company. This involved separating the operations side of the business (OCS Operations) from the valuable property (OCS Properties).
OCS properties was making substantial profits on the back of OCS operations which was loss making as it was required to pay €300, 000 a month rental to it’s sister company OCS properties. If the 2 companies were not deliberately separated then there is no rent payable and the business is viable. It’s a neat little corporate ruse designed to allow the asset stripping of the company, exactly as occurred.
The operations business was then liquidated leaving the employees and creditors with little or nothing while the property is then sold for a massive profit. The statutory redundancy for the workers of course will be paid for by the state as the vultures swagger off with the loot.
The buyers Natrium have also sorted out their tax affairs and use hedge funds based in tax havens like Cayman and Guernsey so that they can avoid making any contribution to the society and workers that they prey on.
Meanwhile insiders like KPMG work for both sides and acts as liquidators on one hand and auditor for the buyers Cheyne Capital Management on the other. Cheyne Capital Management is one half of the joint venture Natrium which also consists of D2 Private owned coincidentally by a former KPMG employee. KPMG executed the sale at 2.30 am on the Friday morning just in time to avoid paying over the estimated €2 million owed to the concession holders.
This ransacking of the company, employees and the citizens was all perfectly legal as the law designed largely to protect the interests of capital and represses the working class.
Wally, people stopped shopping there, it’s really that simple. The store never moved with the times. Massive footfall bypassed the store everyday, they let themselves become irrelevant.
Ho Ho Ho
No Scarce. As already explained, Clerys was profitable as a single entity.
OCS properties which owned the building made a profit of around €5 million between August 2012 and January 2014 which equals the €300k monthly rental figure it received from OCS operations over the period. OCS operations made a loss €2 million during the same period.
If the 2 companies are combined as they originally were, then that leaves a net profit of €3 million.
Separating the property was the root cause of the subsequent business losses, exactly as planned in the asset strip.
Would you mind asking Santa if he could fix the time on Clearys clock before he heads off. It will nearly be showing the correct time when the clocks go back this weekend.
Everyone knows the Santas in shops & shopping Centres are an army of Santa’s cousins who help him out. It’s part of his magic.
I would love to go, Just one question everyone should ask themselves….Does the proceeds from this Santa go to any of the companies/People that had any hand at all on closing this store and more importantly showing little regard to its staff? A confirmation of this one way or the other will allow me to make a conscious decision to bring my little fella or not!
I doubt very much the workers will get a penny from this Santa. Unless they set one up beside the Clerys Santa. Calling themselves the original Clerys Santa
I will avoid it like the plague to show solidarity with the Clerys workers
In the same way that idiots suggested boycotting the best pop up store after clerks collapse. You know the one that was trying to keep Best concession staff from clerys in work by liquidating their stock! Solidarity is a strange thing sometimes. Either that or you do t understand the word
dunnes do a better one
O my, Sant has a shaft in one hand and a bell end in the other, who choose that photo??? lol.
All the anti-Semites can gather there and it will be easy for the Gardai to monitor their activities.
Wrong blog.
Is Santa anti Semite?
I’d sooner see Satan!
have your say