I was in Blackrock, County Dublin yesterday.
It is always a depressing experience being on the DART from Connolly Station to Blackrock…..via Lansdowne Road, Sandymount and Sydney Parade. Ireland at its worst……West Briton, polite, fashionable, vegetarian, muesli breakfast eating, cricket playing, retired civil servants, bank workers, Fine Gael voters.
It only takes twenty minutes to travel from Connolly Station to Blackrock…..but I was angry by the time I got there.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Aw, Thats a lovely train journey Mr Fitz! Right along the coastline, are you becoming a tad grumpy now you have the free travel?
It is! And some of this is tongue in cheek but not entirely. In the 1970s, I used to go down to Dublin about six times a year, spending weekends at North Star Hotel (mostly). A form of respite. And I used to spend alo of time just riding on a bus or going walkabour south of the Liffey. And I was always acutely aware of the North-South Dublin divide. That south of the river there were sophisticated people who wore their middle class values very overtly. And it doesnt help that back then I was a denim wearing, long haired person who wore his working class values overtly.
Nor does it help that my interests in life…stamp collecting, militaria, horses (Im much too old for that now of course) frequently brings me into contact with people of a very different outlook. Nor did it help that on Saturday I fell into conversation with a “free-stater” which blackened my mood.
Actually you can probably detect a note of class envy in my post. Part of me wishes to be south Dublin middle class.But while there is of course different demographics at work in south Dublin, there is nevertheless a significant demographic of the people who I cant really like.
In part “Bad Day at Blackrock” is just one part of my trip on Saturday. Later in the afternoon there was a demo of 26 people from Republican Sinn Féin outside the GPO but I cant really publish it until I get new camera set up. They were totally risible. Even older than me. And if women of 65 plus want to dress up in para military uniform……….why not? After all if a man of 59 wants to drss up as a 18th century Jacobite cavalry officer, then who am I to say they look stupid?
So in a kiinda way Republica Sinn Féin is a different demographic than folks in Sandymount. Both unrepresentative of the plain people of Ireland? Or all with many others all part of the rich tapestry of Ireland in 2012?
Free travel? Not quite. Translink pass does not become active until later this week. And I wont have free travel in Republic until 2017.
Couldn’t disaggree more. I’m a massive fan of that stretch of snotgreen, as our most famous literary West Briton and local lad would put it – with fantastic vista of Dublin Bay which is arguably the best in these islands.