Will the millennium be a damp squib? After the hype of the past 12 months - Government committees, endless competitions, thousands of submissions, and £30 million to spend - it looks likely we will end up with very little but neighbourhood parties, 26 volumes of children's thoughts, awards for worthy citizens, improvements to a couple of theatres and illuminated bridges in Dublin and Cork. The Spike on Dublin's O'Connell Street is being held up indefinitely by legal action; the boardwalk along the Liffey won't be ready until March and fear of a dangerous crush on New Year's Eve has stopped plans for big official parties.
Private functions are being hit by mega wage demands and lack of staff, increased taxi shortages (if that is possible), and huge price hikes in pubs and hotels. Probably with all this in mind, Seamus Brennan's committee, comprising such luminaries as Peter Barry, Lochlann Quinn, Howard Kilroy, Patricia O'Donovan and Paul McGuinness, is to give each home in the country a candle to light up the last night of the millennium on December 31st. Should be handy if there's a power-cut. We will also get a new £1 coin, the last Irish currency to be minted in this or any millennium.
Unusual suggestions to the committee from the public have all bitten the dust. They included the All-Ireland Hurling final on New Year's Day, with free entry for all; an image of the Holy Family at the base of the Spike; the reintroduction of golden eagles; the burning of Viking ships in Dublin Bay; the lighting up of Martello towers, selling time capsules to Irish-Americans and the reopening of disused railway lines. Most suggestions were for environmental projects and religious statues. A few of the former have been taken on - such as restoring lighthouses and rescuing native woodlands, but no statues are planned on the grounds that we have enough already. However, there may be fireworks in Dublin Bay, and every town and village can expect about £4,000 to fund its own celebrations.
The good news is that the millennium committee has £10m of the £30m left and is still meeting each month to decide how to spend it.