Latest news with #Bray
Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Closure of Bray-Greystones cliff walk has ‘cost the economy €73m'
More than €73 million has been lost to the economy – equating to more than €50,000 a day – because of the continuing closure of the cliff walk between Bray and Greystones , Co Wicklow, economist Jim Power has said. Mr Power, an economic adviser to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation and a financial commentator, estimated the loss to the economy included €21 million that would have gone to the Exchequer in taxes. The 7km cliff walk, developed in the 1840s as an access route for workers building the railway line, was, until its closure in February 2021, one of the most popular walks on Ireland's east coast. At its highest point it rises to about 100m above sea level. However, following the collapse of a section of boulder clay on the Greystones side and a rockfall further towards Bray, the walk was closed on a temporary basis. READ MORE Wicklow County Council put barriers at either end of the route and advertised an alternative walk, some of which was on the main Bray to Greystones road before climbing the head and emerging at a landmark cross overlooking Bray seafront. However, as time passed and the cliff walk remained closed, local traders expressed concern at the lack of business. 'The closure hit us immediately. I would say we were first in the firing line, and then it hit everyone else,' said Nigel Spendlove, who runs a coffee shop at Greystones harbour. Nigel Spendlove at Spendlove's coffee shop in Greystones. Photograph: Tim O'Brien Claire Cullen, who runs The Fat Fox cafe and cake shop on Trafalgar Road, Greystones, said the closure had cost her '500 customers a week. That is 2,000 customers a month – it is a lot for any business to take'.. Local group Friends of the Cliff Walk commissioned Mr Power to carry out an economic study of the economic cost of the closure. As part of the overall figure of €73 million, Mr Power estimated losses to local shops, restaurants and coffee shops at €4 million, based on yearly spending by walkers of €3.5 million. Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Power said he had relied on Fáilte Ireland reports on visitor spending, figures for the numbers of people previously walking the cliff walk and his own interviews with businesses in the area among other sources. He said that according to Fáilte Ireland figures overseas visitors would typically spend €105 each a day, domestic visitors would be spending €92 daily and local walkers would spend about €10. He said recent analysis showed 10 per cent of visitors on the walk were from overseas, 40 per cent would be domestic visitors and the rest locals. Using official figures showing 350,000 visitors in the last year the walk was open, the annual spend was €18.4 million. With the walk now closed four years that loss amounted to €73 million overall, he said. He said the impact on the economies of Bray and Greystones has been 'very significant'. 'If we assume the average spend locally is €10 per visitor, the overall spend locally would be €3.5 million. This would support 77 jobs in tourism and hospitality in the local area. Assuming an average wage of €20,000, this would equate to a wage injection of €1.54 million into the local economy,' he said at the launch of his report on Tuesday in Greystones. Wicklow County Council said it was in the process of appointing consultants to advise 'short-term and long-term solutions to address the issues with sections of the walk that have already collapsed or are about to collapse'. The council said it had 'identified unsafe sections, reluctantly closed them, and signposted alternative routes around the collapsed sections of the cliff walk'. It said it was also working to identify funding for the work.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Rick O'Shea: ‘My wife and I come from very working-class backgrounds, so we think savings are important'
Rick O'Shea is a veteran DJ and radio presenter who has worked with RTÉ since 2001, currently with RTÉ Gold. He is taking part in Dalkey Book Festival, which runs June 12th-15th. Are you a saver or a spender? If you had asked me that question a few years ago, I would have told you I wasn't a saver, but that was only because there was never money left over to save. In recent times that has changed a little. Both my wife and I come from very working-class backgrounds, so a cushion of savings is something we think is important to have. What was the first job you received money for, and how much were you paid? The only job I have ever had is being a radio presenter. My first full-time job was when I was 19, playing late-night love songs on a local radio station. I think I was paid the princely sum of £60 a week. In 1992 it didn't quite pay the rent on the Bray-based bungalow I was living in. Do you shop around for better value? If it's something big, of course. We had our bathroom completely changed recently and there seemed to be endless months of getting quotes from different companies. If it's something like cereal, or groceries, probably not. READ MORE What has been your most extravagant purchase, and how much did it cost? I rarely buy expensive stuff such as technology or flash clothes, so the only thing I'd ever call extravagant is travel. After a year of hard saving, we went to Japan and South Korea in 2015, and it cost somewhere in the region of €10,000. [ 'I recently bought a sofa worth about €10,000 new for €380 on Done Deal' Opens in new window ] What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money? On the same trip, I bought what I call my Japanese jumper. It's a long cardigan thing that I bought drunkenly late one night in Hiroshima. I've worn it around the house for the last decade, and there are strict instructions that in the event of my untimely death, I am to be buried in it. Is there anything you regret spending money on? Every nonsense purchase I made in my 20s. I built up a stupid credit-card debt that took years to pay off but it taught me never to do the same thing again. I have a credit card now as they're handy when it comes to checking into hotels on holidays, but I never use it otherwise. Do you haggle over prices? Not really. I think you either have the gene for that or you don't. My father is the exact opposite; it's in his blood. The man loves nothing better than a good haggle over €1 or €2 at a car-boot sale for an album he is interested in. Do you invest in shares and/or cryptocurrency? No to both, probably because I view them as gambles that I'm ill-equipped to take. I'm exactly the sort of person who would invest in stocks the day the market crashes or into a pump-and-dump crypto scheme. I'm sure some people do very well at these things, but I'm not wired that way. Do you have a retirement or pension plan? When I started working in RTÉ in 2001, one of the few smart things I have ever done was say yes when I was asked if I wanted to enrol in the pension plan. I'm also the sort of person who never takes it for granted that I'll make it to 65, so who knows, it may all have been a terrible waste of money. [ Rick O'Shea: 'I was never passionate about the idea of being on the radio' Opens in new window ] What was the last thing you bought and was it good value for money? Tickets to the stage version of My Neighbour Totoro, the new Conor McPherson play The Brightening Air , and the upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim's final musical, Here We Are – all in London and all for my birthday. With very rare exceptions, spending money going to shows in London or on Broadway in New York has always been good value over the years, regardless of how much it costs. Have you ever successfully saved up for a relatively big purchase? All the time. Holidays, solar panels and even our car all came from our savings. We don't have loans out for anything at the moment. If we can't afford it, we save for it and wait. Have you ever lost money? No, I don't think I ever have. Are you a gambler and, if so, have you ever had a big win? I have a deep-seated cynicism about big gambling companies. A huge part of their business model is taking advantage of people with addiction issues who can least afford it. I couldn't stomach money I had to work hard for just disappearing down the drain, no matter the small chance of an upside. Remember, the house always wins. What is your best habit when it comes to money? And your worst? I like to think my best habit these days is having the spare money to give to causes online when I see them. I work with a couple of charities, and I'm painfully conscious of how hard fundraising is these days, particularly in a mainly post-cash world, so if I see a cause I care about online, the odds are I'll donate. My worst habit is probably subscribing to things I don't read. I recently had a subscription to New Scientist magazine that was read one week out of every six when it arrived in the letterbox. How much money do you have on you now? I have gotten into the terrible habit of not really carrying cash on me. There's €60 in my wallet right now, and it's been there for over three months. In conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'Devil in the Ozarks': Who is Grant Hardin, the ex-police chief and killer on the run after prison escape?
A former Arkansas police chief was serving a decades-long sentence for a brutal rape and murder when he escaped from a Calico Rock prison Sunday by disguising himself in a "makeshift" law enforcement uniform, officials said. The search for Grant Hardin, 56, sparked urgent warnings from local law enforcement, put residents of a small northwest Arkansas town on edge, and reignited feelings of hurt and pain that the family of one victim had tried to bury. Several law enforcement agencies across the state are assisting with the search for Hardin, whose crimes were featured in the 2023 Max documentary "Devil in the Ozarks." Former Benton County prosecuting attorney Nathan Smith, who helped put Hardin in prison, said the crimes were "shocking." "Anytime you have a former law enforcement officer accused and convicted and committed these crimes, I think it shocks everyone," he said Wednesday. "Police agencies and law enforcement agencies are no different than anyone else; they're populated by human beings, there's going to be a couple of bad apples, but he was the worst imaginable." The motive for both crimes is unclear, Smith said. As of Wednesday afternoon, Hardin remained on the run. Hardin was arrested in February 2017 after James Appleton, a 59-year-old city employee for the Gateway, Arkansas, water department, was shot and killed in his white Chevy truck. Hardin was Gateway's police chief for about four months in early 2016. Gateway resident John Bray told authorities that he was driving home from work when he saw the truck stopped on the side of the road, according to affidavits filed in the case. A white car was behind the truck, Bray told authorities. Bray said the driver of the car waved him around. As he drove past, he saw the driver, whom he identified as Hardin, the court filings stated. Bray said he drove a few hundred yards when he heard "a loud bang," according to the affidavit. Bray said he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the white car driving up quickly behind him before turning down a dirt road, it stated. Bray told authorities he turned around to check on the driver of the truck and saw Appleton slumped over in his seat, the affidavit stated. He flagged down the next car and had its occupants call 911. Appleton was on the phone with his brother-in-law, then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, at the time of the shooting. Tillman said the area did not have good cell service, so Appleton pulled over so the call wouldn't get disconnected, according to the affidavit. During the conversation, Appleton commented on a white car that had stopped and then started to drive around him, according to the affidavit. Tillman said the next thing he heard was what sounded like a door slamming. Hardin was with his wife, Linda Hardin, and their daughter when he was arrested. According to the affidavit, he was taken into custody as police turned around vehicles to keep them from driving toward the crime scene. Hardin took his wife and daughter to dinner the night of the shooting, according to the affidavit. Linda Hardin told police that while at the restaurant, her husband told his family that if anything were to happen, he wanted them to know he loved them. Hardin's daughter and parents declined to comment Wednesday. Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway and Appleton's sister, said Hardin's escape has added to the family's pain. "I wouldn't say the first couple of years were easy. They were pretty hard," she said Tuesday. "Then you try and go on, and things subsided, and then 'wham,' all this comes back up again. It's very hard." Andrew Tillman declined to comment. Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Hardin's murder conviction led authorities to the cold case rape of Amy Harrison, a third-grade teacher who was sexually assaulted in November 1997 at Frank Tillery Elementary School in Rogers, Arkansas. Smith said a DNA sample was taken from Hardin following his conviction, and it matched evidence collected from the 1997 rape scene. The assault occurred on a Sunday as Harrison was preparing lessons for the upcoming week. A church service was being held in the school's cafeteria, court documents state. Harrison told investigators she left her classroom to use the bathroom in the teacher's lounge, and when she exited, a man was standing with a gun pointed at her. She said the man was wearing a knit stocking cap and sunglasses to disguise his face, according to the court filings. Hardin sexually assaulted Harrison in the bathroom and a classroom, the documents state. She told investigators the man who attacked her was careful about not leaving fingerprints and asked her questions during the assault, including if she recognized his voice. Harrison declined to comment on Wednesday. Hardin pleaded guilty in that case, too, and was sentenced to 50 years for two counts of rape. This article was originally published on
NBC News
6 days ago
- NBC News
'Devil in the Ozarks': Who is Grant Hardin, the ex-police chief and killer on the run after prison escape?
A former Arkansas police chief was serving a decades-long sentence for a brutal rape and murder when he escaped from a Calico Rock prison Sunday by disguising himself in a "makeshift" law enforcement uniform, officials said. The search for Grant Hardin, 56, sparked urgent warnings from local law enforcement, put residents of a small northwest Arkansas town on edge, and reignited feelings of hurt and pain that the family of one victim had tried to bury. Several law enforcement agencies across the state are assisting with the search for Hardin, whose crimes were featured in the 2023 Max documentary "Devil in the Ozarks." Former Benton County prosecuting attorney Nathan Smith, who helped put Hardin in prison, said the crimes were "shocking." "Anytime you have a former law enforcement officer accused and convicted and committed these crimes, I think it shocks everyone," he said Wednesday. "Police agencies and law enforcement agencies are no different than anyone else; they're populated by human beings, there's going to be a couple of bad apples, but he was the worst imaginable." The motive for both crimes is unclear, Smith said. As of Wednesday afternoon, Hardin remained on the run. Gateway city worker shot and killed in car Hardin was arrested in February 2017 after James Appleton, a 59-year-old city employee for the Gateway, Arkansas, water department, was shot and killed in his white Chevy truck. Hardin was Gateway's police chief for about four months in early 2016. Gateway resident John Bray told authorities that he was driving home from work when he saw the truck stopped on the side of the road, according to affidavits filed in the case. A white car was behind the truck, Bray told authorities. Bray said the driver of the car waved him around. As he drove past, he saw the driver, whom he identified as Hardin, the court filings stated. Bray said he drove a few hundred yards when he heard "a loud bang," according to the affidavit. Bray said he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the white car driving up quickly behind him before turning down a dirt road, it stated. Bray told authorities he turned around to check on the driver of the truck and saw Appleton slumped over in his seat, the affidavit stated. He flagged down the next car and had its occupants call 911. Appleton was on the phone with his brother-in-law, then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, at the time of the shooting. Tillman said the area did not have good cell service, so Appleton pulled over so the call wouldn't get disconnected, according to the affidavit. During the conversation, Appleton commented on a white car that had stopped and then started to drive around him, according to the affidavit. Tillman said the next thing he heard was what sounded like a door slamming. Hardin was with his wife, Linda Hardin, and their daughter when he was arrested. According to the affidavit, he was taken into custody as police turned around vehicles to keep them from driving toward the crime scene. Hardin took his wife and daughter to dinner the night of the shooting, according to the affidavit. Linda Hardin told police that while at the restaurant, her husband told his family that if anything were to happen, he wanted them to know he loved them. Hardin's daughter and parents declined to comment Wednesday. Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway and Appleton's sister, said Hardin's escape has added to the family's pain. "I wouldn't say the first couple of years were easy. They were pretty hard," she said Tuesday. "Then you try and go on, and things subsided, and then 'wham,' all this comes back up again. It's very hard." Andrew Tillman declined to comment. Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. DNA ties Hardin to 1997 cold case rape Hardin's murder conviction led authorities to the cold case rape of Amy Harrison, a third-grade teacher who was sexually assaulted in November 1997 at Frank Tillery Elementary School in Rogers, Arkansas. Smith said a DNA sample was taken from Hardin following his conviction, and it matched evidence collected from the 1997 rape scene. The assault occurred on a Sunday as Harrison was preparing lessons for the upcoming week. A church service was being held in the school's cafeteria, court documents state. Harrison told investigators she left her classroom to use the bathroom in the teacher's lounge, and when she exited, a man was standing with a gun pointed at her. She said the man was wearing a knit stocking cap and sunglasses to disguise his face, according to the court filings. Hardin sexually assaulted Harrison in the bathroom and a classroom, the documents state. She told investigators the man who attacked her was careful about not leaving fingerprints and asked her questions during the assault, including if she recognized his voice. Harrison declined to comment on Wednesday.
Irish Times
27-05-2025
- Irish Times
Walking the Bray Celtic Camino: a Famous Five adventure for adults
Dare I utter the words 'hidden gem'? Especially when referring to Bray, Co Wicklow? I think I dare. The Camino de Santiago de Compostela is a network of pilgrimages across Europe which leads to St James's Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. I know scores of people who have done it for spiritual, physical and craic-centric reasons. They all come home with a sort of knowing air of, 'It's fabulous. It's a pity we don't have that kind of walking infrastructure here.' We do in fact have that kind of infrastructure here, albeit on a much smaller scale. There are two Camino routes in Ireland, one from Tralee to St James's church in Dingle, and one from the Bray seafront to St James's Gate in Dublin 8. Cut to me having half a notion to travel abroad to try the Camino, and then deciding that there would be no harm in availing of a free trial at home. READ MORE My two walking companions want to do the route backwards, going from St James's Church in the Liberties to the Bray seafront. I'm pretty adamant about finishing five minutes from my house in Dublin 8, flopping on the couch and ordering takeaway, but Hugh and Colm win me over with the promise of a dip in the Irish Sea at the end of the long road. It will become apparent as you read this that we are not masters of logistics. In the first instance, we had agreed to set off from St James's with our Irish language pilgrim passes at 11am. With the best of intentions, we depart from the grey stone steps of the church at midday. Delays aside, the first 10 minutes are extremely rewarding and flat. We pick up stamps in St James's Church, St Audoen's Church and Christ Church. Gleeful, we stop for coffees and a lemon slice. We maybe peak too early. Hugh O'Reilly Fitzgerald, Colm Maye and Niamh Browne at St Audoen's Church The first logistical hiccup involves bicycles. Colm has a fanatical relationship with cycling; there's nothing he loves more. If the bicycle and I were drowning at the Bray seafront, Colm would be cycling to my funeral. He insists on cycling to meet me at our starting point. The issue is, he then doesn't want to leave his treasured possession locked outside St James' unattended for hours on end. As a result, he decides he'll walk with it some of the way, deposit it at the first convenient Dart station, and collect the bike en route home. It is not a surprise to anyone who knows him that he walks and wheels it for the entirety of our 30km passage. So there are four of us in our walking party. We start in St James's Church, which is the home to the Camino Society Ireland. Here you can buy your passport, pick up a map and get further information about what you're about to get yourself into. We then walk through Dublin 8 past Christ Church, cros the river to see the Famine memorial, zigzagged back over the Seán O'Casey Bridge, and amble happily over Grand Canal Dock and along the river Dodder until we hit Sandymount. From Sandymount onwards it is navigational plain sailing and we hug the coast till we reach our final destination. The second big issue is that the three of us are chatterboxes. Every available opportunity to stop and chat – about the weather, the Irish language, saving the ocean, then saving the planet, anything at all – is seized. We have made eight stops by the time we reach the halfway point of Dún Laoghaire and are too late to collect our stamps at the tourist information office and the James Joyce tower. [ Bray-Greystones cliff walk: 'It's a big attraction. We have got to get it reopened' Opens in new window ] 'But sure, it's about the journey rather than the destination,' says Hugh. Although this is true, I had been feeling pretty goal-orientated clutching my stamp book. It is at our ninth stop, in Dún Laoghaire, when I start to get impatient. 'Right lads, we need to pick up pace,' I say. The result of this is nine stops pre Dún Laoghaire, two stops post Dún Laoghaire. But even with our second-half urgency, we still arrive at the pebbly beach on the Wicklow border at 8.30pm, some 8½ hours after kick-off. With two kilometres to go until we reach the Victorian sea resort, Hugh cheerfully asks me: 'What is the name of the church? Could you pull it up on Google there?' 'St James's, I assume,' I say naively. After a couple of quick clicks on my phone I realise that there is no St James's in Bray. The church we are supposed to get our pilgrim passports stamped at is 1km behind us – Crinken (St James) Church in Shankill. Colm Maye and Niamh Browne on Killiney Hill Road At this stage of the walk I am sweaty, tired, sunburned and hungry. To go backwards feels like an impossible feat, a huge psychological loss. However, the stamps are saved from the jaws of exhaustion. Colm is the human incarnation of a Duracell bunny and he gladly agrees to cycle back and collect our stamps from Crinken Church. Hugh and I sit at a bus stop with a man whose car broke down with our own broken bodies and wait. We have to eat our words having made fun of Colm for wheeling his bike all day and it turns out they aren't tasty. Niamh Browne at the start of the Bray Celtic Camino Niamh Browne on the Dart home after completing the Bray Celtic Camino By the time we reach Bray, it is past sunset, and the moon is rising. Hugh is too exhausted to even swim in spite of advocating for this orientation of the route for that exact purpose. I slowly (oh so very slowly) side shuffle down the shore with my tired feet and plunge myself into the shallow water. It is enormously relieving. Suddenly I am focused on being cold rather than sore and it feels brilliant. Niamh Browne's stamped Pilgrim passport from the Bray Celtic Camino We hobble from the beachfront to an excellent Pakistani restaurant called Daata, where we devour hearty bowls of creamy and spicy curry, fluffy rice and sweet naan. We are fit only for bed, but just before catching the Dart, we crawl to the famous Harbour Bar for one delicious pint. The beads of condensation drip down the side of the pint glasses like sweat, the music is bluesy and the chairs are plush. It is the single greatest achievement of the day that we manage to peel ourselves away and get the last Dart home. The Verdict The Celtic Camino felt like an adult Famous Five excursion – complete with picnics, swimming, hiking and lashings of ginger beer – although the only adventure was our own knack for creating artificial elements of inconvenience. I'd happily recommend it to anyone, but perhaps with better timekeeping and hiking in the opposite direction. A couple of things to keep in mind: The route is 30 kilometres-ish in total, but it can be broken up into segments. You could do the Dún Laoghaire to Bray stretch, for example, or just the city centre part to practise. Even if we hadn't taken 8½ hours to complete our journey, it still probably would have been better to plan to start earlier. It's long whatever way you dice it but if you want to reach all the stamp venues early enough to collect the seven stamps along the route, it's best to go in the morning. Lastly, wear sunscreen and comfortable shoes. Given that it's an urban trail, most essentials such as water and snacks can be purchased en route. The only non-negotiable item I'd advise you bring with you is sun cream – and lots of it. Further information about the Bray Celtic Camino Coastal Route can be found at .
