IT WAS like inviting your guests to admire the family silver when lit was floating in a greasy sink. Tourists looking at the National Lottery's millennium clock in recent days have been treated to a parade of drinks bottles, plastic, bags and whatever else the Liffey threw up at low tide.
It may have been promoted as "the most beautiful and astonishing clock in the world", but no one on O'Connell Bridge on a sunny afternoon could decipher the digital read out. Daylight didn't help, they admitted, plus all that debris and dirt clogging the green neon.
And what were those things sticking out of the water for? According to the architects, they are design elements - electra carbon "reeds". The experts on the bridge decided they were there to stop swimmers and boats bumping into the clock.
The £250,000 timepiece has ticked away about 14 million seconds since it was switched on with a bang by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, last March.
According to a spokeswoman for the National Lottery, it will disappear from the Liffey for up to two weeks at the end of this month to make way for the Liffey swim. It well be given a good scrub down and a look at improving its visibility during the day.
"It's just the way everything neon looks during the daytime. This really is a night time sight and lots of people have said it looks spectacular glowing away in the dark."
Mr Tom O'Shaughnessy, up from Limerick for Sunday's hurling match, was far from impressed. He had come down from his hotel especially to look into the murky depths, having seen the clock on the Eurovision special. "It's Dublin's embarrassment at this stage. I think they should take it out before Michelle Smith sees it."
One of his friends suggested it be left there as a comfort to Sonia O'Sullivan. "Losing a gold medal is nothing compared to what's in the Liffey."
Mr Richard McNally was pleased with the 20p postcard he got for his son, Alan (9), showing he had another 105 million seconds to go before 2000. "I've passed it lots of times, but I've never looked over before."
The postcards have been selling well, according to the spokeswoman. "We've had requests from all over the world asking us to send them postcards.
Between 600 and 700 cards a day have been sold in the five months since the clock was put into the river, generating around £16,000 minus the cost of the cards and machine. The proceeds will go towards maintaining the clock and the machine.
The National Lottery was tendering for a maintenance contractor, she said, the value of which was sensitive commercial information and could not be revealed. If the Lottery doesn't appoint a contractor by the end of the month, the contractor who removed the clock the last time will do it again.
Mr Thomas Bell from England said money was being spent there on repairing church bells that hadn't worked for decades . . "I think you've got it wrong, as we've got it wrong. The money has come too easy and it's being wasted." Mr Bob Hardy from Sydney, Australia, agreed it seemed a "waste of good money".
Mr Keith Lackin from London suggested a bell could be rung every minute "and a big Irish voice could boom out Only eight million four hundred and sixty seven seconds to go and then say `Oh, no, sorry that's wrong, it's only eight million and...'."
Another visitor from London, Mr James Dickens, thought the clock might be more effective on the side of a building or in a square. His friend suggested it was counting down the seconds to pub closing time and so they left in search of beer.
