What you see above purports to be a Google Street View
© cat. In its photomapping of the world's towns and cities Google Street View has picked up many strange phenomena but it appears this cat is
not one of them.
This is the osriginal photo and it comes from Ottowa, Canada. But never mind, we're never short of true examples nearer home.
This is a Google Street View of Hawkins Street, Dublin, from Burgh Quay. The tall building in the centre of the picture, on the site of the old
Theatre Royal, is the headquarters of the Government Department of Health.
The Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly TD, has been afflicted with all sorts of problems since he took office. He has been accused of rowing back on various pre-election promises and, most recently, his Minister of State
resigned, citing difficulties with the way the Minister was running the show, and particularly the role played by old style lobbying in influencing the location of health centres. There is also the implication that Reilly's gruff style fell far short of the collegial model needed for the smooth running of the ministerial team, not to mention the two party coalition Cabinet.
Some may feel that these disagreements are in large part down to a conflict of personalities and styles, but Google Street View
reveals that there are more serious structural problems involved here. The very building itself is clearly in a state of unresolved internal conflict which threatens to tear it apart.
From an aesthetic point of view this would be no great harm as it is one of those 1960s type office bloxes that shot up all over Dublin at the first whiff of 20th Century economic progress. Some might simply put it down to
The Curse of the Royal, a magnificent theatre which had been part of the city's lifeblood for yonks.
I first noticed this particular flaw in the building when researching my
Dr. "Who" Reilly cartoon some weeks ago. The resulting cartoon is below.
[
Note: (11/5/2013)
In the original of this post yesterday I took the cat to be genuine but was uneasy at not being able to see the patchlines. When I went to try and source it I discovered it had been tricked. I have amended the post accordingly. I also found that Google Street View had already (7/5/2013) acknowledged this on its fun page. ]
Update 13/9/2013
Just to add a positive note. A colleague has drawn my attention to the Google Street View Performance below. It comes from Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. You can click on the coordinates
here, invoke the little Street View Man and drive past, or just enjoy the strip below.
Click image for larger version
