Floating NAMA

THE famine replica vessel, Jeanie Johnston, completed a decade ago at a cost of €14 million, was acquired by Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) in 2005.

It was to have been operated as a sail training vessel with a core crew of 11 offering 29 sail trainees valuable expertise. It was subsequently announced that Jeanie Johnston would become a famine museum.

Moored at a high-profile location on the Liffey, Jeanie Johnston has neither moved nor displayed any vitality for several years. It has the aura of an abandoned vessel that will become derelict through lack of function. Its written-down value in the accounts of DDDA is less than €3 million.

Would it be appropriate to move it to Grand Canal Quay, close to NAMA headquarters, so it could become a national monument commemorating the shenanigans at DDDA and the titanic encumbrance that greed and avarice is inflicting on our overburdened society?

Myles Duffy

Bellevue Avenue

Glenageary

Co Dublin