Dublin: Hold the Beer

A different look at the Irish capital: less emphasis on partying and more on the economic success that the nation has enjoyed for over a decade.

TEXT: María Soledad Ramírez

It’s hard to define Dublin. The city has been saddled with so many clichés. The land of beer and bars: I don’t care for beer, much less guzzling it. Celtic folk music on every corner: the first band I encountered was comprised of metalheads rocking out in the middle of Grafton Street, the city’s main tourist drag. The city of Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw: I’ve read Joyce’s Dubliners, but not Ulysses, some Wilde, nothing by Swift or Shaw. The city of Georgian architecture: there is enough to create a sort of Jane Austen feel, but a slew of 1970s modernizations disrupt the sense of unity. The city of revolutionary struggles (as immortalized on the silver screen by scads of movies, like Michael Collins starring Liam Neeson): I arrived the day of former Prime Minister Charles Haughey’s funeral – one of the most controversial politicians of recent times, Haughey was loved by some, accused of corruption by others.

So which Dublin would I find? The day my flight arrived from London, the weather threatened rain. I was accompanied by a group of English citizens, both young and not-so-young, including a young bride with an elaborate wedding-appropriate hairdo, headband and pink veil, on her way to her bachelorette party.

I got off to a good start, as my cab driver was talkative and friendly: he even charged me less than the meter when he dropped me off at my hotel, a gorgeous Georgian house in the city’s nicest neighborhood, Ballsbridge. Off the tourist circuit, Ballsbridge is quiet and old-fashioned. Walking down Baggot Street toward Pembroke Road, you’ll notice that the Georgian cliché transforms into an array of lovely colored doors and elegant three-story brick houses. Above all, you get a sense of peace so rare in a capital city.

I wanted to discover the Dublin responsible for the country’s economic success over the past 15 years (see sidebar, page 98 ). Modern Dublin exists, but it remains something of a work in progress. I started by looking for the Spire – or the Spike, as some call it – a 400-foot-tall needle smack in the middle of O’Connell Street, the former site of a statue of Admiral Nelson that was blown to bits by the IRA. The controversial Spire was erected in 2002-2003. Admirers praised it as a symbol of the country’s prosperity, while critics scorned it as utterly graceless. Whatever the monument’s aesthetic value, young people gather around the base, using it as a meeting place.

On my way there, I took a classic tourist route, walking along the southern shore of the Liffey, down Grafton Street, passing Trinity University and the majestic Bank of Ireland (the former Parliament building), crossing O’Connell Bridge to the northern side of the river and walking down the street of the same name (Dublin’s main commercial street), before finally reaching the Spire. You can tell that there is no shortage of money here, but with prosperity comes the attendant problems of modernity: heavy traffic, congestion and slightly dirty streets.

After a look at the Spire, I head toward the northern shore of the river and the east side of O’Connell Bridge. I proceed to the Custom House, a regal 18th-century building from which many Irish left for America. This city may have been dominated by the English for centuries, but at least the government buildings are all grand examples of fine architecture. Short steps away is a beautiful sculpture by Rowan Gillespie depicting five hungry beggars trembling in the middle of the area where today more money is being invested than at any other time in Irish history. The 300 acres on both sides of the Liffey that make up the section of Dublin’s port area under development are the site of an ambitious project that has been ongoing for the past nine years. Cranes dominate the area, everywhere you look.

Among the constructions already standing is the International Financial Services Center (IFSC). It’s worth your while to take a weekday walk at lunchtime or around 5 p.m., when the offices close and the area’s coffee shops and restaurants – amid steel and glass office and apartment buildings, cultural centers and stores – are bustling with executives. While it lacks the life gained by a neighborhood with age, the area remains quite promising.

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