Tag Archives: box in the docks

Work in a box in the docks

Waterways Ireland wants a manager (one-year contract) for its visitor centre in Dublin, aka the Box in the Docks.

Music box in the docks

WI PR here.

Dry docks

GRAND CANAL

At a Meeting of the Company of Undertakers of the Grand Canal, duly convened by public Advertisement, and held at the Company’s House in Dublin, on Monday, the 6th day of April, 1840,

WILLIAM MURPHY, Esq., in the chair,

The following Resolution, moved by James Pim, jun., Esq., seconded by James Dawson, Esq., passed unanimously in the afformative: —

Resolved — That the Court of Directors of this Company be authorised, if they shall see fit, to call the attention of the Government, of the Chamber of Commerce, of the Ballast Corporation, of the several Steam Companies, and of Capitalists generally, to the important advantages which the Grand Canal Company’s Floating and Graving Docks at Ringsend offer to all parties connected with the Shipping interests of the Port of Dublin, and to apprize them that this Company will at all times be ready to entertain any well considered proposition for increasing the general usefulness of these Docks, on the fairest and most liberal terms as regards the Public. Under the firm persuasion that by whatever well-arranged proceeding this important portion of the Company’s property can be best made available in increasing the Trade and promoting the prosperity of the City of Dublin, it will be rendered the most effectually conducive to the interests of the Company.

By order, JOHN McMULLEN,
Secretary of the Company.

From The Freeman’s Journal 8 April 1840.

Perhaps Waterways Ireland might follow the example of its predecessors and, rather than getting into bed with the DDDA, might consider some “well considered proposition for increasing the general usefulness of these Docks”.

 

The Box in the Docks

From the website of the Dublin City Business Association:

Dublin City Business Association commissioned Jerome Casey and Felim O’Rourke to undertake a study of tourism in Dublin and to make least-cost recommendations for its rejuvenation. The World Tourism Organisation concluded (in relation to Ireland) that “there appears to be very little correlation between marketing spending by National Tourism Organisations and international arrivals”.

Within Ireland, there is a mismatch between the Irish tourism market and the public resources devoted to it.

33 existing tourist attractions in Dublin were reviewed, and low-cost initiatives suggested for their improvement.

From 2000 – 2010 Ireland’s share of world tourism visitors has fallen sharply. In 2004, Ireland changed from being a destination country for incoming tourists to an origin country for Irish, outgoing tourists.

Dublin must move from passive approval of tourist activities to an active development of tourism as a priority industry in regenerating the city’s economy.

As my piece on the Park Canal in Limerick shows, I’m all in favour of low-cost improvements, so I downloaded the full report (PDF: 949.7 kb). Folk interested in waterways might like to proceed directly to page 46, which reviews the Box in the Docks, the Waterways Ireland visitor centre in the Grand Canal Basin at Ringsend.

Some other water-based attractions get much better reviews.

 

 

 

 

The Blocks in the Docks

Waterways Ireland’s visitor centre in Dublin, known as the Box in the Docks, has been closed for some time. I don’t know whether it has yet been reopened, but it has a new website.

If you are pained by greengrocers’ apostrophes, don’t go there. The main problem, though, is that the website says nothing about what is in the Box. Why “Plan a visit” if you don’t know what you’ll see when you get there?

Perhaps it’s a work in progress, with more to be added later, but I’d welcome information about what’s in the centre from anyone who has visited it recently.