O’Connell Street Christmas “tree” – Merde actually

I’ve been passing by the construction of the Christmas decoration on O’Connell Street over the last week. I twittered that I wasn’t convinced about it. The above photograph shows it pretty much completed and I’m even less convinced now.

It was designed by a French company that created the lighting for the Eiffel Tower. 100,000 energy efficient bulbs will no doubt look good at night, but it just doesn’t spell Christmas like a traditional tree does.

Who are the people that actually make decisions like this? Do they have something against trees in general? Ever since the council bulldozed the historic trees that once grew along the street (in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep) to make way for the  “new, improved” thoroughfare, greenery has been sadly lacking.

The skinny latte, designer trees parachuted in to replace the old ones are poor excuses for trees. They need to be taken to tree bootcamp to beef up their bark and trunks a bit. They remind me of Victoria Beckham. Even dogs avoid pissing up against them, so confused are they by their distinct lack of tree-ness.

How and ever, the Christmas lights were switched on today, far earlier than normal. Dublin’s Lord Mayor stated that the lights on O’Connell Street will be a call of “civic patriotism” to shoppers to spend their money in Dublin.

So why didn’t they exhibit the same patriotism and stick an Irish tree in the middle of the street, instead of going all the way to France for this tawdry, characterless, ungreen, unchrismassy heap of shite.

A big fat FAIL in my opinion.

Photo by Infomatique and used under the terms of a CC License.