Ireland …. It just doesn’t feel like home!! 🙁

mariaalice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331120#Comment_121331120

That's an interesting point in a different context and it explains a lot about various threads, it's not about facts, it's about feeling.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331132#Comment_121331132

Mcgowans still is a pick up joint to be fair :)

mariaalice

Why would anywhere stay the same, it's the ebb and flo of history.

Thelonious Monk

Weird post, the areas are still a bit of a mess but they're far better than they used to be. Phibs is definitely gentrified, you get groups of hipsters going to Bohs games ffs. I'm living half the time in North Strand these days and all the old houses are privately owned by what seem to be wealthy enough folks who have put money into the houses and done them up. Drumcondra has loads of nice restaurants now, it wasn't like that 20 years ago.

Another poster suggested that some of this area is now just plain unsavoury and best avoided. The underlying reason is obvious and widely discussed outside online forums of this nature.

He means foreigners. There are lots of issues in the North Inner City but it isn't foreigners breaking into houses in North Strand, or gangs of teenage foreigners who were stealing all the tires from the garage across the road last week.

artanevilla

I think the most important line in the OP is the first one. They lived there 20 years ago and now it feels different. Of course it does! It was 20 years ago! Everywhere evolves and changes, you probably notice it less as it's gradual when you live there, but if you leave and area for 20 years and come back expecting it to be the same, you're in for a shock.

It doesn't feel like home because it's not your home. Your "home" as applies to the area is a construct that has existed in your head for the last 20 years that doesn't reflect the realities of a growing and changing city. Go back 40 years and talk to someone that lived there then, ask them to come back to when you lived there 20 years ago and it will be different again. In 20 years time it will also have changed.

ArthurDayne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331450#Comment_121331450

Agreed, OP comes across as just another "just asking questions" baiting exercise.

Areas around the Northside like Phibsborough and Drumcondra had been in transition for a while. The biggest shock for them has been Covid, the lockdowns and the housing crisis — with workers forced further out of the city and tending to stay out of the city much more since remote working became the norm. When you strip a gentrifying area of young couples, families, students etc — it's going to have an effect.

I personally think Dublin feels 'weird' since lockdown — and I think that's because the lockdowns and housing crisis have warped the way some areas were developing. But this absolutely egregious b**locks about it all being down to migrants and refugees is just that — b**locks. I live on the Northside and a lot of the wrecking, troublemaking, fights etc you see is being done by white people with Dublin accents. Anyone with a functioning brain knows that this doesn't come down to these kids / young adults just being bad and incompatible with the rest of us — it's largely a result of a socioeconomic cycle that is hard to break out of.

The sad thing is that in 20 years time people will be on Boards talking about how great the white Irish kids used to be back in 2023 but now all these culturally incompatible immigrant kids are just troublemakers . . .

Flinty997

Recently was at Phibsboro SC does not feel "gentrified". Its shabby and grubby looks run down. A lot of NC Road is a lot worse than it used to be. I wasn't standing there thinking this is like Blackrock.

I don't think it's changed much. Was the same in the 80s/90s. Because it's busier there's more shops and newer shops, but I wouldn't say its economic status has improved relative to the rest of Dublin. It's not like it now the foxrock of the northside.

Bring back the ICE Skating Rink. 😂

Its maybe better because 2023 is better than 2003. You probably weren't sipping on €5 coffee while on your €1000 iPhone in 2003.

Rothko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331132#Comment_121331132

No, no, no. It obviously has to be racism! There's no other possible explanation.

I.R.Y.E.D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121331734#Comment_121331734

Screw the ice rink bring back Bobs

L.Ball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058321205/ireland-it-just-doesn-t-feel-like-home

There's literally nothing wrong, Dublin is as good as anywhere else, and any problems you find here you will find in any city. I've never had any problems in dublin so therefore there are no problems.

scottser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121328701#Comment_121328701

DCC have a planning policy of not saturating main streets with fast food, off licences and betting shops, which is fair enough and might explain planning refusals or delays. However, they are also supposed to assist alternative fledgling enterprises but my sense is that they assist far fewer than they should. I also imagine shop rents in that area are ridiculously high, refurbishment is costly because of the age of buildings and they're no longer suitable for office spaces due to the lack of universal access. It's such a shame because there are so many artists, creches, co-ops and community groups screaming out for space.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121330025#Comment_121330025

You'll have to walk all the way up to Cross Gunns bridge for your "underground". Frequency to Drumcondra station will have increased long before that though, thanks to Dart+.

slay55

The area around Quinn’s was thriving around 20 years ago with shops, Quinn’s and fast food places

these days a lot quieter, less premises open /standing , so basing OP’s opinion on this part of drumcondra- I’d agree

Former Former Former

The OP fails to appreciate that he's also 20 years older. I worked in a pharmacy on Dorset Street 20 years ago and I can 100% tell you it was grim as f**k back then too.

You get older, you become more aware of and more scared of things like dodgy teens and unkempt streets.

WrenBoy

"Jesus, the high street could do with a lick of paint."

"What are you, some racist fascist or something !!!?"

-This thread.

mariaalice

I didn't think it was racist l thought the op was talking about the drug addicts, and drug use on the street whice is now very visible, the amount of not well people, plus amount of empty and delerct shops.

veryangryman

Can we just agree that the people dont look as local as they used to and hence it doesnt feel like home without resorting to worrying about one's stereotypes.

mariaalice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336387#Comment_121336387

Well the op hasn't come back and said if they are racist or not so well'll never know.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121335768#Comment_121335768

I mean an actual underground network. Not metro north or other siloed projects.

But DART+ will certainly help, though that is decades away, realistically.

Citizen Six

I remember back in the 90s when the pharmacy beside the Perki Chick used to supply methadone to drug users. 😂

maninasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058321205/ireland-it-just-doesn-t-feel-like-home

I honestly had the exact same feelings and was shocked by them being away for a long time like yourself and know those areas well. These great historical north central areas of Dublin have been terribly managed abd become a dumping ground of sorts for social problems, housing charities and emergency accommodation .

I saw how Dublin city council mismanage the place, not even cleaning the streets properly, not using proper bins for refuse collection , not planting trees or cleaning and fixing the pavements, lack of benches . Place looks run down as hell rubbish and dogshit lying around.

Also many derelict and shoddy shops, possibly waiting for redevelopment...

Phibsborro shopping center area is unbelievably cruddy can't believe it's still like that in 2023. DORSET street also gone downhill not that it was ever amazing.

Not all the country is like that. I noticed some of the towns seems to have bigger budgets or better spent e.g. Athlone , Carrick on Shannon , they are on the up, can't believe how badly run North Dublin central area is in particular. Abandoned by the politicians.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336727#Comment_121336727

We'll be both dead and buried before your metro dream is realised.

Dart+ isn't decades away. More like a couple of years. I've been on a test train for the system, as well as the mockup of the new trains, which are on order.

maninasia

Part of them are gentrified but honestly Phibsoboro mostly looks **** and could be 5x better than it is. Traffic has gotten worse and drivers are more prone to break the lights and angrier than 20 years ago. I personally detest the escooters and ebikes and deliveroo riders on pavements and canal way and glasnevin cycleway due to the speed they are going.

The whole place has gotten far busier, there's simply more people, more commuters. just far busier than my memory. But interestingly not more shops, cafes or restaurants , gyms and no metro etc. A busy city without the accoutrements of a city.

Bus service has improved a lot which is great to see.

COVID seems to have killed a lot of business along with inflation and then the social dumping makes the place a lot rougher than equivalents on the South side . Phibsboro 'shopping center'...Tesco, dodgy Chinese buffet, euroshop and horrible Eddie rockets , awful dump. Local favourite Woodstock cafe and restaurant closed. A few smaller places opened sure. Parts of Phibsoboro are great some great pubs still, canal walk and such but so much wasted potential. sure they don't even have a proper gym, recreational center or swimming pool in the area. How is that possible I wonder. No public investment. Look at the library there is a tiny one there from a hundred years ago. Still haven't constructed a cycle way yet. What investment has the government put into these places for the people who live there?

Inflation is brutal in Ireland a lot of people don't have the cash to eat out much and it shows in a lot of areas.

Broadstone most improved obviously with the college and luas there although still can be really dodgy with kids intimidating passengers and throwing stones.

Cabra has definitely improved a fair bit but the houses are hard to pretty up.

Don't get me started about Finglas and it's 'shopping center' but at least it's actually pretty safe to walk around these days and much matured lol.

If I was to summarise my feelings about North central Dublin is time has stood pretty still, with some places a bit improved , others roughly the same and some like Dorset street , Parnell street and Dominic street going backwards. I was surprised to find my imagination and nostalgia clash with reality, it's not attractive to me and I have no intention of ever moving back to the area now, lacking in basics such as modern gyms and swimming pools (Ireland wide issue), too busy, too messy, too cruddy , too transient population and too many dodgy characters in many spots. I'm just calling it as it is for me and I know other people will be quite happy there and there are many nice places in Phibsboro, Drumcondra etc. Maybe 10 years later with the metro at cross guns it'll have picked up and get more investment and a massive earthquake will have taken out Phibs shopping center...although I think even the IDF might struggle in knocking it down.

ArthurDayne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336387#Comment_121336387

Bit hard to divorce those things though sometimes.

I've said it on a few other threads in my time — but by an absolutely massive margin the leading differences in Irish society now, from the most remote rural fringes all the way to the city centres, and what it used to be like in the past, are driven by technology and the rise of liberalism / decline of Catholicism. These two things have driven absolutely enormous change in the way Irish people interact, how communities operate, everything.

In my lifetime, born in 1990 — I've seen the two chapels of my parish go from being a major gathering of the entire community every Saturday night or Sunday morning to nothing but one Mass with a few elderly people in attendance. Social interaction now takes place almost constantly online, and the online world is now so close at hand on our smartphones that we almost forget that all those WhatsApp groups we are in are just private Web chat rooms with our friends.

Yet, despite all that (and all the other economic stuff) when people kick off these threads about how the good old days were better, the thing that gets put front and centre all the time (explicitly or tacitly) is immigration. It's hard then sometimes to divorce oneself from a suspicion of the underlying motive.

slay55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336737#Comment_121336737

Still does, most chemists do - very lucrative business for them

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336772#Comment_121336772

Sorry, I am confusing Dart + with Dart Underground.

Dart +, as I understand it, is an improvement in frequency and extension of service times for the current DART, rather than the introduction of new stations to the network?

Some existing train stations may be brought into the DART network, I believe.

But if we look at Dart+ Coastal South, as far as I can tell there are new stations as part of the project.

But there will be increased frequencies and hopefully later running times.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336849#Comment_121336849

Yeah, but back in the mid 90s it was the only one in the area as far as I know/remember.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336895#Comment_121336895

It's a mixture of both, so increased frequency and capacity. Better interconnection with other transport lines. Some new stations. Less reliance on diesel power.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336964#Comment_121336964

Thanks.

Are there any new stations planned along the existing coastal Dart line?

Hopefully they will run more frequently and later.

With the Luas, i mever bother checking times for the next tram because you know you wont be waiting long. You just turn up.

But the Dart and buses are less frequent and this puts me off using them unless i have to.

A service frequency closer to the LUAS would be great, but i dont expect we will get that.

It would be good if they linked Brides Glen LUAS to the DART at Shankhill.

They are less than 2k apart & would make the DART more accesible for many on the Green Luas line & vice versa.

But no plans I think.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336829#Comment_121336829

I think people are very quick to jump to any sort of "....isim". They are looking to be outraged.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121336793#Comment_121336793

Lot of that I agree with. Time has stood still. Might be more modern or busier. Not really "better" in comparison to other parts of Dublin.