MARK GODFREY,
Madam, - I was dismayed at having to pay €5 to visit the Jeanie Johnston, currently moored at North Wall Quay in Dublin. This replica of a famine coffin ship was built at considerable expense to Irish taxpayers. Should we not be allowed to visit what we paid for, in the same way as other public property such as Farmleigh House, Aras an Uachtaráin and and National Museum may be visited free of charge at designated times? My dismay turned to anger at seeing that the ship was "available for corporate entertainment." This information was printed on the publicly distributed information leaflet, along with a mobile phone number.
This use of the ship is very ill-fitting of a vessel built in memory of those who left this country starving and destitute during the Famine. Many of our ancestors died the boats commemorated by the Jeanie Johnston replica. Are they to be remembered to the clink of corporate champagne glasses and the smell of a CEO's cigar? I find the thought grotesque. - Yours, etc,
MARK GODFREY,
Ballykilleen,
Ballyhaunis,
Co Mayo.