The Tall Ships have arrived in Waterford for the start of the 3-day festival. Every road in the city is locked down for resident only access. Only in Ireland could we close roads for the arrival of ships! There are more Gardaí performing point duty than I ever knew existed in the city (certainly in the case of drunken and aggressive behaviour on Saturday nights). However, it’s not all bad and so far I have to say that traffic is flowing smoothly and disruption is being kept to a minimum. This might be down to the excellent work of the organising committee or perhaps due to the fact that most people just took the 3 days off work because it looked like too much hassle to deal with. Either way Waterford has answered its critics by verifying the ability to lock down a city and control everything in a professional manner for such a large event as this. Up the Déise!