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'It's complete madness': Two Dublin councillors want a cable car from Tallaght to the Hellfire Club

Two south Dublin councillors say that it would be “a great asset to the county and it would encourage visitors who don’t drive to visit the area”.

TWO MEMBERS OF Sinn Féin are to request a study into the possibility of building a cable car from Tallaght to the Hellfire Club as part of a tourism investment in the Dublin Mountains.

The Dublin Mountains project is a tourism strategy looking to emphasise tourism in parts of south Co Dublin, and has been called the council’s flagship tourism strategy.

The councillors, Cora McCann and Dermot Richardson both representing the Tallaght constituency, say that this would be “a great asset to the county and it would encourage visitors who don’t drive to visit the area”.

The councillors say that a cable car would also help ease traffic towards the Dublin Mountains, which Dermot Richardson believes could become “unsustainable” as a result of the tourism strategy, and parking would also be a problem.

When asked how the cable car would be financed, Richardson says that the job would be put out to tender for a company to install and run – and that “the council would not fund this”.

He says that the only costs to the council would be the rates paid and the cost of the study itself.

Like many different projects, they would tender it out and have no involvement in it. Rates would be paid to the council for the commercial side of the business.

He says that he’s already received a few emails from companies that would be interested, who have already begun discussing the ins and outs of building the cable cars.

“This has been on the agenda for the past three months now and we haven’t got to it yet. It was raised as a possibility by the South Dublin Chamber of Commerce over ten years ago, but at the time it was thought to be a bit ‘pie in the sky’.”

But now that there’s a tourism strategy and a renewed interest in the area, councillors and the South Dublin Chamber of Commerce are reconsidering it as a possibility again.

‘Flagship folly’

But McCann and Richardson’s fellow councillor Anne-Marie Dermody is completely against the cable car – and the Dublin Mountain project in general.

“For those unfamiliar with the Dublin Mountain flagship project, the budget of €19 million gives you some idea as to its scale, and when you consider we have over 8,500 on the Housing List within South Dublin County Council, you would be forgiven for thinking we live in a parallel universe.”

The Fine Gael councillor says that the Dublin Mountains project “is topical within the council” and says that the reality of the situation is that the money for the tourism project is better spent elsewhere.

To add to this, Sinn Féin now want to include a cable car from Tallaght to Rathfarnham, how utterly ridiculous is that?
The current budget of €19 million would quadruple immediately. This is complete madness and needs to stop before good money follows bad.

Route The current driving route from Tallaght to the Hellfire Club. Google Maps Google Maps

“I am well aware of the potential the Dublin Mountains offer in terms of tourism, but why not have an interpretive centre, modest in size and budget, similar to those built up and down this country?

“[We could] then use the balance €19 million plus to concentrate on getting the fundamentals right and providing ‘proper and sustainable’ planning for housing throughout our county.”

Dermody says that there are still better uses for the council’s time and efforts, particularly in relation to the current housing crisis.

“This flagship project is somebody’s folly. Why not ask the many families who are this Christmas living in the Abberley Court Hotel how they feel about a cable car to take them from Tallaght to Rathfarnham?

Perhaps they could take their children there to put down the time before returning to the hotel room they call home.

A breath of fresh air

Last year, South Dublin County Council commissioned architects to identify a potential tourism flagship project in the Dublin Mountains and to look at the development of a first class visitor destination for South Dublin County.

The Dublin Mountains tourism project was based around this study and found that Massey’s Wood and Montpelier Hill, more popularly known by Dubliners as the location of the Hellfire Club, will be at the centre of the campaign.

Other plans by the council in conjunction with Coillte involve opening a restaurant in the Dublin Mountains.

The Dublin Mountains tourism project will involve a €19 million investment into tourism to emphasise the natural aspect of south Dublin, away from the packed city centre.

The proposal for what the Dublin Mountains tourism campaign would look like is being designed by both the South Dublin County Council and Coillte and is loosely based on Fáilte Ireland’s ‘A breath of fresh air’ campaign.

South Dublin County Council and Coillte will now move to the planning and detailed design phases of the project.

The proposal is to be discussed at tonight’s South Dublin County Council meeting.

Watch: Archaeologists explore an ancient tomb beside the Hellfire Club >

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

Read: Major megalithic art find at Hellfire Club passage tomb >

Read: Dublin Mountains might be getting a restaurant

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108 Comments
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    Mute Gav Brosnan
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:23 PM

    People aren’t going to stop taking them, on-site testing facilities would be a forward thinking solution.

    175
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    Mute SFLounyTouny
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:28 PM

    @Gav Brosnan: natural selection would be another. Just because society won’t make it legal doesn’t absolve you of responsibility. Ingest unknown substances!! More fool you.

    32
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    Mute Rónán O'Suilleabháin
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:39 PM

    @SFLounyTouny: Gav is advocating a solution to the unknown substances problem.

    Would you actually not support safety initiatives for people to test pills but you’d rather say I told you so to the 0.0001% of people who ever have an issue with them?

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    Mute Gav Brosnan
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:45 PM

    @SFLounyTouny: yeah I agree, its not smart to take stuff you that you don’t know the contents and source of but people will still do it, a lot of people. Just because its stupid doesn’t mean it wont happen. The risks can always be lessened.

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    Mute SFLounyTouny
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    Jun 1st 2018, 2:08 PM

    @Gav Brosnan: the risk can be lessened!! The risk can be eliminated completely..dont take them.

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    Mute Alan Carmody
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    Jun 1st 2018, 3:22 PM

    @SFLounyTouny: oh that’s that sorted so. Hope everyone caught that.

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    Mute Gav Brosnan
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    Jun 1st 2018, 3:52 PM

    @SFLounyTouny: you clearly don’t live in the real world.

    19
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    Mute SFLounyTouny
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 1:38 AM

    @Gav Brosnan: yes I do…take unknown substances and risk death..don’t take unknown substance and no risk of death..quite simple.

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    Mute john doe
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 2:43 AM

    @sftonylouny
    Get in your car risk death, don’t get in your car don’t risk death.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:04 PM

    I have to say this is absolutely sound advice from the HSE and it’s good to see a sensible approach taken for once. Obviously the clear message is don’t take drugs but the advice given is 100% correct and relevant. It could save a life

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    Mute John Longmore
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:14 PM

    @Coco86: a pill testing station would also help

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:17 PM

    @John Longmore: Agreed. Might actually turn people off if you new exactly what was in it.

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    Mute Julian Friesel
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:20 PM

    @John Longmore: i believe the legal situation wouldn’t allow them to be handed back, so fairly pointless at the minute

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    Mute Rónán O'Suilleabháin
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:51 PM

    @Coco86: Agreed, it’s good to see them coming around to the type of practical advice that club magazines provided in the 90s. It’s a lonnnnng time since I touched anything but good advice still applies.

    2 weeks between sessions seems a little unrealistic for most heads though. And its better to test the batch before, or talk to your friends, as you’re unlikely to show discipline at the start of a session when you’re hyped up. Most people wouldn’t knowingly bring speckled pills to a festival as a sizeable number of folks don’t like tripping or are not cut out for it in large crowds of people they don’t know.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:59 PM

    @Julian Friesel: Just give one keep the rest :)

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 2:05 PM

    @Rónán O’Suilleabháin: The thoughts of e’s make me gag now man absolutely putrid rotten yokes! But back in the day I did my fair share and looking back now I’m lucky to have made it through those mad teenage early 20′s years! But we all know the risks albeit understand them that bit better as you get older. Hopefully everyone enjoys this year’s festivals and gets home safe,

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    Mute Jalbeardzi, The Typo Pirate Yaarrrr
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:20 PM

    Don’t take them is also good advice.

    56
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    Mute just readin
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:30 PM

    @Jalbeardzi, Yup and if you dont, just take a little bit seen how you feel in an hour before you escalate

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    Mute Tim keogh
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    Jun 1st 2018, 11:44 PM

    @Clever Jake: because it is legal, if it was illegal it wouldn’t measure in the list of most deadly drugs.

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    Mute Colm Kiernan
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:30 PM

    Let’s hope the yes side come out in as much force on this issue, “women take abortion pills let’s make it safe for them” people take recreational drugs let’s make it safe for them. Legalise and regulate from manufacture to consumer

    39
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    Mute El Diego
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    Jun 1st 2018, 4:50 PM

    @Colm Kiernan: we need the Citizens Assembly to get involved here. Where’s Noone when we need her? Probably still hungover from the rave at the castle. #Trustdrugdealers

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    Mute Steve1234
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:20 PM

    Perhaps enforcing drug laws would be a start

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:10 PM

    @Steve1234: They clearly don’t work

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    Mute Steve1234
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    Jun 1st 2018, 2:10 PM

    @Coco86: They’re not enforced. People used to drink and drive regularly until it was treated seriously and now a lot less people do it as there is more chance of being caught. If the same approach was taken to drugs it would have the same results

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    Mute Bearded Grump
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    Jun 1st 2018, 2:30 PM

    @Steve1234: Evidence from every country that has tried this shows it doesn’t work. All you end up with is prisons filled with decent people for minor drug offences.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 3:52 PM

    @Steve1234: Of course they are enforced, have you ever witnessed anybody taking lines off the bar having a pint? No, because it’s illegal people will use the toilets instead! If anything I would say they are enforced too much and you must admit the so called war on drugs is being catastrophically lost. I agree with you on your drink driving comparison but this is not the right approach here IMO. Why criminalise the person with 20 euro worth of MDMA in their pocket when the real problem is at the top of the chain making millions? There will always be a demand for drugs so provide safe substances and make those on top irrelevant

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    Mute Damon16
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    Jun 1st 2018, 3:52 PM

    Traditional party drugs like MDMA are quite safe substances, certainly no more dangerous than alcohol and likely safer. Where the danger arises is with adulterated substances, toxic derivatives or substances passed off as something they’re not. This is a result of prohibition and the black market drug trade. If alcohol were illegal, you would see deaths due to methanol poisoning from home brews as is common now in many Islamic countries where alcohol is prohibited. The substances we know to be relatively safe from clinical studies (MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, cannabis etc.) should be regulated and allowed to be openly sold as alcohol is. Dangerous derivatives and the like should still be banned.

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    Mute Dj
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:23 PM

    Lesson number 1. Know you’re dealer.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:29 PM

    @Dj: lesson number 2 “you’re” means “you are”

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:54 PM

    @Dj: Absolutely I am… You either do it, or you lie and say you don’t do it

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:07 PM

    @Dj: Question is does your dealer know their dealer and so on. The MDMA or pills the user consumes has passed through so many hands! The best thing is to listen to the advice given above and enjoy yourself, and the buzz!

    5
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    Mute Dj
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:34 PM

    @Coco86: Well, if you’ve been buying off a dealer for a period of time and it’s good stuff then I don’t see the need to buy some crap off some shifty looking bloke in the public toilets. Just come prepared is all.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:58 PM

    @Dj: That’s true I’d sooner go without than risk some filthy crap from a randomer, you seem to think likewise :)
    Unfortunately though I would think a lot of people particularly kids wouldn’t see it that way.

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    Mute Chris Linehan
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    Jun 1st 2018, 2:21 PM

    @Dj: Lesson No. 47 – Learn to count

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    Mute Pl Ster
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    Jun 1st 2018, 12:46 PM

    @Dj (know your dealer) As if that makes any difference he doesn’t give a toss about you .

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    Mute johnbunton
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    Jun 1st 2018, 6:00 PM

    Prohibition KILLS

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    Mute Philip Murphy
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    Jun 1st 2018, 1:10 PM

    At the same time as an online poll here regarding possession of small amounts of illegal substances.

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    Mute Yzo Sirrius
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    Jun 1st 2018, 3:47 PM

    “Chewing gum can help jaw cramps” – yeah, will help GIVE you jaw cramps! And wreck your stomach. Clearly never did a pill in his life!

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