Welcome To Hell...

No, not Galatasaray. It's even worse: Navan!

For a Dub, there are few things worse than the prospect of spending a week in Meath! But Monkey Boy has a Lego(TM) - and they're very specific about that on the website! - summer camp here, and since Muggins can work anywhere there's an internet signal, I get the delivery job...

And I have to say - I am very surprised. Drogheda is dead; West Street is a soul-destroying vision of empty shopfronts and discount stores. Even the shopping centres are increasingly becoming desolate wastelands. By contrast, this place is booming. And it has exactly the same challenges that Drogheda Chamber of Commerce spend their time whining about; retail parks, massive shopping centre, Lidl, Aldi. And yet walking up to the library, I didn't spot a single empty shop and only 1 unit for rent in the (massive) shopping centre. And the town is only 2/3 the size of Drog...

The only difference I can think of is that Navan's traders didn't devote their whole existence to maintaining a cartel on the retail trade. The shopping centre arrived and they dealt with it; the retail parks arrived and they dealt with them; the shopping centre doubled in size and they dealt with that too, and the arrival of those cost-cutting Europeans and their foreign muck!

By contrast, Drogheda Chamber - formerly lead by the town's leading retailer, who coincidentally happened to be the town's largest retail landlord - devoted themselves to stopping anyone else coming in, until a two-year period when they suddenly had to confront all of the above challenges simultaneously. And guess what; no Plan B. And five years on, there's still no Plan B...

It might help that Navan is the county town, so there's a county council who are actively interested in maintaining and developing the town, but you really have to wonder what the retail brains in Louth are up to.

Anyway, this is the Solstice Arts Centre which incorporates the library - base of operations for the rest of the week.