Craic On

This is an old article from 2008 that we are rescuing from an old cache and adding to the new website.

New Seats

Anyone walking along the shore will have seen a bit of a change to the seats.

A lot of the old wooden seats have been ripped out and replaced by new arty seats.

I think the budget for them has come from some Government arts grant.

Instead of the wooden seats, painted blue with backs in them, these new seats are made from some kind of stone with a marble top.

Harder All Round

Presumably this makes them harder to vandalise.

However, it also makes them harder to sit on.

What’s more, they don’t have backs either so anyone sitting on them would have to perch there.

I’ve asked people what they think of them.

The answers have been “I suppose they look nice enough” or “one’s first instinct for something new like that is to be against, so I’d better give them a chance” or “maybe they’ve done that so the under age drinkers can’t sit on them very long”.

Sitting In The Sun

When you walk along the shore on a good day it is usually the older people you see sitting there, sometimes older couples, sitting with their backs against the painted wooden seats looking out over the water and relaxing in the sun.

It’ll be interesting to see if people use them as much or whether they are great white and marble elephants – if you see what I mean.

There’s supposed to be a couple of weeks of good weather coming up very shortly so that will be the first real test of them.

First Impression

My first impression?

I think it’s crazy!

It would seem to make more sense to have stone built and marble topped picnic tables to stop them being vandalised, as you don’t have to sit on them.

I can’t recall any – and there’s almost certainly a good reason for that.

However, time will tell and, who knows, they might become very popular with both visitors and locals.

I did ask one young mum I spotted sitting on one of them how they were and she thought they were fine.