to kerry or not to kerry?

[Tr Ash]

was suggested on our board to get onto the person who owns the Ice Boxes on behalf of all the club houses who booked this year and try negociate a price with her for all the houses......im guessin she'd like some business rather than no business...

.....was 700e each this year.....how about asking for each house at say.....500e....with Trinity, UCD, UL booking two each(going on this year) with option of other group getting in on this aswell.....
 
i'd ask for 500e but be happy if she agreed with 600e for the week.....

....i like kerry cause of the beach, rivers and middle-of-nowhere pub......tis the attitude of a particular holiday home owner and ever increasing prices that annoy me....

*Edited to remove a name*

[Siobhan UL]

Also ask her to either bypass the electricity meters for the week seeing as so much needs to be spent on heaters or to increase the number of kilowat hours per €2 as it was and is known to be completely extortionate.

Or to throw a fire on in each of the houses the first day so we don't have to walk into giant fridges.

If you don't ask you won't receive.   

[Mark]

Please don't specifically mention any names of the people who let out houses in kerry.

[halfnakedJimi]

this topic is actually far older then the 2 years quotedearlier on in the thread, but this is the first year that anythin has been discussed both among everyone who is involved and also with enough time to make changes if they are agreed upon.

Firstly i'm not in a position to make any comments on the amount or grade of rivers either in Rossbeigh or any other place we might move to. I do however like the current location because of its proximity to some fantastic mountains and climbing (which i will someday be sober enough to do!!). But any rivers/beaches that are accessable from rossbeigh are also almost as accessable from anywhere else in the county. So this can be boiled down to an accomadation and "entertainment" issue.

The reality is that the houses are being charged at extorsionest rates, and then you still have to pay for heating and electricity. A number of ways have been suggested to deal with this but I think the solution might be a synergy of several of the suggestions.

1)firstly we do as Trash suggested and try to book out the place as a whole group of colleges, rather then everyone just seeing what they can get. This will give us greater leverage to negosiate on the price. But whoever is doin the booking will make it clear that the clubs in general are dissatisfied and that if a lower price is not reached then as mentioned above its all or nothing.

2) as siobhan said the electricity meters are a farce, and we should defenatly demand that the houses are warm and dry prior to us moving into them. Also a free bag of coal or brickettes wouldn't go a miss either seeing as all the houses have heating systems that can be run off a back burner in the fireplace

3) if this doesn't work then maybe it is a good idea to move. But as I recall the original plan was just to move for a year, just to scare them and make them realise how important our business is to them. It might be worse just sucking it up and having a slightly less then great Kerry for a year to reap the benefits in the future.

[allio]

west cork sounds pretty intriguing(?).
baltimore jimi? small village, a few nice pubs, and lots of holiday homes, are they all occupied at new years already though ?

newport in connemara?

or for that matter, there are a shed load of holiday homes around leenane in west galway, clifden down the road, tuam surf spot across the way, spideal, and quite a few new galway rivers have come to light recently...

could we rent the delphi adventure centre for the week of new years? eoghan powell would be the man to talk to there, about suitability and availability as he has strong connections with the area....

and old employer of mine, and close friend lives in leenane full time, i suppose i could contact him re availability of houses....

contacting bord failte about the possibility of negotiating the rental of a whole village might not be too cheeky? they might be willing to contact all their associated houses in an area to negotiate something....

whatever the f**k i do next new years, it definitely won't be done in aberdeen.... worst christmas and new years ever....

allio

[Tr Ash]

was also suggested to me that, we find a similar location that does rent out houses at say 500-600e and go to the landlord/landladies in the area and say that if they can match those prices then we'll stick with rossbeigh if not we'll go to the place with the cheaper prices

though  leenane is a place i'd love to go to, that area is so beautiful!! and only two pubs there, right beside eachother, in the middle of nowhere, perfect! with the bundorragha for newbies, lakes, erriff river.....im sure there's other in the area but those just came to mind there......also the beach is a bit of a drive away but still pretty close.....if i'm trying to avoid study i'll do a bit of looking around for houses in the leenane area to rent during that time and probable prices for there......just as an idea

also, not sure if eoghans' uncle is still running delphi....but i could be mistaken on this....but still, would be pretty class for all of us to stay together in the one centre!

i would like to stay in rossbeigh but definitely will ask for cheaper electricity, warm hose and cheaper overall cost. if not, i'd be happy with going elsewhere

*edit to remove name!* TRASH!!!!!

[Diarmaid]

this discussion of rossbeigh seems very much centred on the ice boxes. this year there were a disproportionate number of them booked out to us (I think 6 total? 2 DUKC / 2 UCDCC / 1 Maynooth / 1 UCDCCDC?). In previous years, people have been in other houses, equally near the ross, where electricity has been free and rent has been more reasonable. are these no longer available? are they under the same ownership? what's the story?

[Tr Ash]

the other houses seem extremely hard to find contact details for and dont seem to be on the web.....does she have a monoploly on that too???

i'd like to stay in some of the others houses if people could suggest which ones are free.....cause i always thought the oldies of UCD booked these houses up pronto before any of the rest of the clubs had a chance to even find them......

found houses in lahinch for just under 500e for the exact same time of year!! couse use these as ammo!

....and oops about saying her name! sorry!

[Diarmaid]

well two years ago we just wandered into the ross, had a word in mick's ear and got the nicest house in Rossbeigh. that could be the way forward.


how about we don't book anything, put the fear of god into them, and then just show up on the day?

[Canuala]

ah lads....i know a lot of people skipped Kerry this year because it was a bit too difficult to deal with, and i am not saying this was right or wrong, but the truth is Kerry will always be fraught with mixed emotions, so maybe changing the location might be a good idea for some...but anyhoo, thats something thats personal and I'm not trying to influence anyone either way...

what i really want to address is that you all seem to be forgetting that the North of Ireland exists??? A helooo??? Drink is cheaper, accomadation is cheaper, and they're really quite used to wild shanningans up there, plus from what I understand there are quite a few rivers to run. I think Davy B has run a few thingys up there and I'm sure the veterans of the paddling world have ventured there, I mean they get as far as Uganda and Chile, and the north is only 2 hours from Dublin, no comparison really...
....and on the whole driving note, thanks to the new roads being built now it is literally 2 hours from Belfast to Dublin in the car...much closer than Kerry no???

Well theres my 2 cents worth, I know the north is a contentious subject for you softy  southerners, what with your feelings of guilt for selling out on us and abandoning us to the Brits, but maybe its time to overcome this fear??     and no its not dangerous to wear orange canoe club hoodies (which was Dee and Dave's theory)...they will not think you're orangies and pull out their machine guns....apparently they're all gone now, what with disarmament and all anyhow

[Diarmaid]

what with your feelings of guilt for selling out on us and abandoning us to the Brits

I'm sure what Nuala meant to say was "feelings of guilt for selling out on *it* and abandoning *it* to *us*

 

[allio]

not sure about the north.

a few things i can see...

you'd really have to be certain that the village you go to is cool with a hundred people turning up to go absolutely batshit crazy for a week... having worked with lads from all over the north at home and abroad, i've found that northern lads (and i include donegal in this) tend to go from best mates, to insanely violent in about two heartbeats. just last night while working in the pub i had two seperate northern gents threaten to pull my ears off for asking them to settle down in the pub. thank god for bouncers. secondly, if we pissed off even one person in the village, i can pretty much guarantee that a phone call later the pub could turn into a warzone. anybody remember what the odyssey in creeslough used to be like, or tj's in bundoran for that matter. i could actually see some groups taking serious offense at a hundred of us taking over their local boozer for a week at new years. i know from working with these guys, that us *dublin freestaters* are not at all popular, even among the people of *nationalist* persuasion... this is just my experience.... i really don't think we'd feel all that comfortable.... small groups would be fine i think. a hundred of us could go very very wrong....

I've a lot of very good northern friends here in aberdeen, but when they're full of beer the kid gloves go on. it can be very much like handling dynamite.

secondly.... the weather on the north coast can be absolutely ridiculously cold at that time of year. i mean ridiculous. the atlantic is barely tolerable in kerry at that time of year. i've tried surfing up there late in the year and in the spring, not for the faint of heart...

thirdly, no matter what anybody says. you're legally in a foreign country, and all the fun and games that goes along with that....

we may get overcharged in the ross area. but, and i mean a big but, we are given massively preferential treatment, by everyone in that area when it comes to what we're allowed get away with. pub til 6/7am. no matter what happens, the police are never called. if there's ever any hassle with the locals, it's the locals that get tossed out of the pub. the people in the ross know which side their breads buttered on, but also know what services they provide for us and act accordingly. that pub closes in october and doesn't reopen until the spring, except for the week of new years where he reopens just for us.

i think its worth the extra few quid...

my .02$
allio
p.s. i hope i offended noone in this post, as no offense was intended

[becca]

i can pretty much guarantee that a phone call later the pub could turn into a warzone

Ah go on yeah, we will go. It sounds like an adventure. Doesn't it sound like an adventure?
We could turn it into a game right, those who make it back alive get a curly wurly.

Those who make it back alive minus an eye get a curly wurly and a half.

If you make it back alive without a foot and/or arm you get two curly wurlys. etc.

I sound like the worst insurance cover ever. Hey, wouldn't you be just as pissed off if you lost an eye as if you lost a foot? I don't see why you get more for loosing a limb.

Personally, I won't go back to Kerry. If you guys feel like moving that would be cool but i would hope that no one would feel emotionally blackmailed into leaving because of what happened with Dee. Obvioulsy thats a consideration for me, and others too, but everyone who knew her has to make up their own mind about how much they're going to let that affect their decision to go to Kerry. It shouldn't be a group issue. Our freshers for instance, never even met her. so. Thats a bit sad really.

[Pia!]

I'm with Becca on this one- i'd definitely give up an eye for a curly wurly!!

Ok no seriously, i'm personally not going back to Kerry but that's for my own reasons. I don't think the freshers should miss out on the amazingness of Rossbeigh for something that happened before their time. If its getting too expensive and the club finds somewhere better to go than you should move but don't let Kerry become the place that we only associate with Dee's accident. Me myself, well- I wanna burn that place to the ground but no one's forcing me to go back there and i don't think the club should give up on that tradition because as Allio said- we do have a pretty sweet setup down there!

I say scare that woman down there (who's name i can't mention) into thinking we're gonna go somewhere else next year and she'll eventually crumble and reduce the price!!

 

[Monkey Loving Bob]

Just to be clear, everyone has their own reasons for suggesting venues other than Rossbeigh for new year's celebrations, however I do think it's worth mentioning at this point that this isn't just UCD who are pushing for a change of venue, it's a number of colleges and is more to do with the extortionate way we are dealt with.

If I've upset anyone call me and I'll clarify or apologise. I for one went back this year and had a ball. I didn't get ripped off completely because I stayed in Glenbeigh and I wouldn't pay the asking price in Rossbeigh.

I think if you're going to change the venue for this it needs the active participation of all the larger colleges and on that basis it's less of an emotive decision.

On the other hand, each reason and opinion is as important as the next (except Becca's) so maybe I'm just picking this up wrong and being an asshole. Who knows?