LAI KeyNotes: June 2007

Letter from the President

Dr. James A. Fawcett

Almost 100 of your fellow members and guests gathered at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin, Republic of Ireland three weeks ago for the spring Land Economics Weekend. Our organizing committee from the London Chapter as well as our executive director were very pleased at the turnout and we came very close to our absolute limit on attendees. To give you an idea of the range of folks joining us, North America was well represented with folks from chapters across the continent and every region. Among our international at-large members, Roy Sheargold represented the Australian contingent from "down under" and Anilkumar Hatkar attended with his wife from Mumbai, India. We were delighted to see such wide attendance at this important meeting.

As I mentioned in my earlier column, one of the objectives of this meeting was to demonstrate to our Irish friends that LAI has a history of supporting education on land economics matters, is a place where land economics professionals from all of the diverse disciplines dealing with land can meet and share ideas and is also "neutral ground" where contentious issues of land allocation can be discussed openly. Toward that end, our London Chapter involved a number of influential and interested Irish land experts, both public and private, in our meetings. This resulted, as is customary at these events, in a view of diverse aspects of the country and its economy, as well as the cities of Dublin, Newry and Belfast. Without these experts we would not otherwise have had the opportunity to see and learn so much about the aspects of the exciting/fascinating development and its impact on the country.

Special thanks go to the committee from the London Chapter: Dr. Karen Sieracki and Bob Gibson, Roger Kallman and John Dallimore for their imagination and diligence in putting this comprehensive program together. They worked tirelessly in finding the exactly right combination of speakers to give us the most thorough overview in the short time we were able to be there.

The event that started the experience was a marvelous dinner at Malahide Castle on Wednesday evening. This had been preceded by an intense day long session to complete the extensive business of the organization. One might say, "oh a castle" but this 800 year old structure was truly exceptional! It is surrounded by 250 acres of parkland and had been in the same family ownership, which is remarkable in Ireland. The dinner was held in the Great Hall of the castle overlooked by a massive painting of the Battle of the Boyne by Van Wyck. According to family history, 14 members of the Talbot family ate breakfast in the Great Hall, before proceeding to the battle where all of them died. This dinner was truly a dramatic start to this entirely fascinating Land Economics Weekend.

On Thursday, we heard presentations about the Irish economy and especially the role of land in the country's economy. The demographics of the island are fascinating. The Diaspora of the Irish over the past two centuries is amazing. We are aware of the emigrations to North America but seldom focus on how many went to and influenced other countries. The last such great emigration was in the 1980's when the Irish economy took such a beating. At last, with Irish ambition and hard work, Ireland is now booming and, as one of our speakers described the history of the country, "It's gone from potatoes to chips." And, that seems to be a great summary of this knowledge-based economy that is now the envy of Europe.

Early on Friday we boarded our buses to travel up the Irish coast to Newry, the site of so much partisan strife during "the Troubles," as the last decades of the 20th Century have sorrowfully been termed. Gerald O'Hare, managing director of Parker Green International and a resident of Newry gave us a splendid briefing on how bringing jobs to the region helped stop the fighting. He hosted us in a grand new regional mall "Stephen's Green" that his firm has built next to their offices in Drumalane Mill, a part of Newry.

We then continued up to Belfast, a city that is also rebuilding with great success. There we toured a huge new commercial project, Victoria Square, in the very center of the city that will be a magnet for residents from throughout the region. The Belfast City Council hosted our luncheon with a presentation on planning and economic development in the city and then, after a bus tour around the city, we settled into a visit and presentation at the Titanic Historic District, the site of the shipyard where the ship was built. We saw docks where she was outfitted as well as giant cranes used in that construction. Then we joined Mike Smith and one of his consultants, Diana Fitzsimons, for a presentation on the conversion of this former shipyard into a mixed use development that will revitalize the Belfast waterfront. After dinner and presentations, the tired group re-boarded buses for the return trip to Dublin, a good night's sleep and the prospect of individual explorations in these great cites during the days that followed. It was a memorable Land Economics Weekend.

James A. Fawcett
International President
fawcett@usc.edu