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Fás Aon Oíche

Observed in Supervalu Car Park, Raheny, 8 July 2006.



Many of us have seen fields, where we used to pick mushrooms, turn into building sites overnight and eventually become part of the urban concrete jungle. Many of us mourn the passing of these mushroom fields.

Perhaps mushrooms once grew in the field that became the carpark for the SuperValu complex in Raheny. If they did they are long gone. But in the course of building works in the carpark I noticed the plastic mushrooms above. They are capping the piles which will form the foundations for the new building.

Their visible life will be brief, just like the real thing, and they will soon be built over in exactly the same way.

Plus ça change ... !

[There is an interesting little postscript to this item. I took the photo above on a day when there were no builders on the site. I have been back twice since during the "working week" (at the shops) and taken further photos. On both these occasions I was approached by the gaffer who asked, in a none too friendly way, what I was about. I hasten to add that this was all taking place in what was, in effect if not strictly legally, a public place. My original interest was in the mushrooms only, but this attitude made me wonder what lay behind it. Now that I think of it I don't recollect having seen any planning permission notice on the site and Ireland is now becoming increasingly sensitive about employment conditions on building sites particularly where immigrant labour is concerned.]


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