I really hope that, someday, our chimneys will get the stamp of approval

YOU know that my family (kind of) claims ownership of the Poolbeg Chimneys.

That’s simply because my father authorised their building and signed the cheque, so to speak, when the job was done.

And while it wasn’t his own money, it was his call, it was his decision and it was his foresight. 

Indeed, the same foresight saw the construction of the Turlough Hill facility which ensures we don’t waste off peak electricity. It is a battery of sorts. And it has more than paid back its cost. 

Anyway, the chimneys.

I wrote about them in the Irish Times a few months ago. And I got great reaction.

That didn’t surprise me. 

But what is surprising is that their popularity seems to be growing by the day.

I was looking online the other day for stuff I might buy for myself, and others, for Christmas, stuff connected with the chimneys.

And guess what?

Almost everything I saw, everything I like was sold out.

We really have fallen in love with the Poolbeg chimneys.

Yes, they’re industrial. 

But the Eiffel Tower isn’t exactly subtle. Brooklyn Bridge is another iconic structure loved not for its beauty but its purpose and location.

There are many others like Battersea Power Station, the Harland and Wolfe cranes in Belfast and so on.

Our chimneys are cropping up in more and more ads, in newspapers and on television. They’re featuring in dramas. 

Whenever anyone sees them they think: Dublin.

U2 and Elvis Costello both used them as a backdrop. 

I’m hoping someday there’ll be a stamp to mark the popularity of the chimneys.

And I’m hoping it’s soon.

I wonder when someone will come up with a way of actually using them for some useful purpose?

Mind you, if they somehow arranged a way of getting  people to the top…

…I’m busy that day.