Dubliners are fiercely proud of
their city, and while
DUBLIN
is the Republic of Ireland's capital
it is quite apart from, and can be
dismissive of, the rest of the
country - one Dublin wag once
remarked with characteristic caustic
humour that "the only culture
outside Dublin is agriculture".
Over the past decade, as young
people from rural Ireland and all
over Europe, gravitate toward the
city to share in the wealth, not
experienced since Dublin's much
celebrated Georgian heyday, this
urban/rural divide has started to
wane. As a result Dublin exudes the
style and confidence of any
cosmopolitan European capital - most
apparent at night when Dubliners
party with a panache verging on the
reckless. Dublin's economic upturn
is impacting on the city's rapidly
changing urban landscape too, with
restaurants, cafés, bars and clubs
opening in abundance, and Dublin's
famous pub scene is now matched by
an equally celebrated club scene. On
the downside, however, its
reputation as one of the party
capitals of Europe has attracted
droves of "alco-tourists"
who arrive in the city for
booze-fuelled weekends; they have
become such a problem that some
areas of the city, such as Temple
Bar, have actually banned stag and
hen parties.
The continual drift of population
from the land to the capital has
brought its fair share of problems
too as Dublin is now bulging at the
seams. Spend just a couple of days
here and you'll come upon traffic
congestion and inner-city
deprivation as bad as any in Europe.
The spirit of Dublin is undergoing
massive upheavals too, with youthful
enterprise set against a leaden
traditionalism that harks back
nostalgically, as in the words of
one popular folk song, to
"Dublin city in the rare old
times". However, the collision
of the old order and the
forward-looking younger generations
is an essential part of the appeal
of this extrovert and dynamic city.
If you approach Dublin by sea,
you'll have an opportunity to
appreciate its magnificent physical
setting, with the fine sweep of Dublin
Bay and the weird, conical
silhouettes of the Wicklow Mountains
to the south providing an
exhilarating backdrop. Central
Dublin is not big, and it's easy to
find your way around. One obvious
axis is formed by the river, the Liffey
, which runs from west to east and
acts not only as a physical, but
also a social and, at times,
psychological dividing line. The northside
, distinctly working class, with
some areas blighted by unemployment
and drugs, stands in stark contrast
to the affluent neighbourhoods of
the southside.
The transformation to top of
Europe's economic class has cast the
city economically and culturally
into the heart of the continent.
This new-found cosmopolitan chic has
its home in the vibrant Temple
Bar area, "Dublin's Left
Bank", with its numerous pubs,
clubs, galleries and restaurants.
However, for many visitors, the
city's heart lies around the best of
what is left of Georgian Dublin -
the grand set pieces of Fitzwilliam
and Merrion squares, and
their graceful red-brick houses with
ornate, fan-lighted doors and
immaculately kept central gardens,
and the wide but strangely decorous
open space of St Stephen's Green.
The elegant southside is also the
setting for Dublin's august seat of
learning, Trinity College and its
famous library where you can see the
exquisitely ornate Book of Kells
; Grafton Street , the city's
upmarket shopping area; and most of
the city's museums and art
galleries.
North of the Liffey, the main
thoroughfare is O'Connell Street
, on which stands the General
Post Office , the scene of
violent fighting in the Easter
Rising of 1916. Further north, among
Georgian squares older and seedier
than the ones you'll see on the
southside, are the Dublin
Writers' Museum and the Hugh
Lane Gallery . West again, and
you come to Dublin's biggest open
space - indeed, one of the world's
largest city parks - Phoenix Park
, home of both the President's
Residence and the zoo.
The urban sprawl quickly gives
way to the genteel villages which
punctuate the curve of Dublin Bay,
from the fishing port of Howth
in the north, to the southern
suburbs of Sandycove with its
James Joyce connections, Dalkey
, made famous by the comic writer
Flann O'Brien, and salubrious Killiney
, now colonized by the rich and
famous. Added to this is the fact
that Dublin must be one of the
easiest capitals to escape from,
making it a good base for exploring
the hills and coastline of Wicklow
to the south and the gentler scenery
to the north that leads up to the
megalithic monuments of the verdant Boyne
Valley.
