My Last Visit to Dublin (and why I may never go back again)

bernieduffy · 14-07-2012 11:24PM #1

My last visit to Dublin, for a school reunion last year, brought up a lot of questions about my feeling of heritage and belonging. I haven't lived in Ireland for a long time, but the identity is important to me. During my last trip, I was confronted by that identity, and the city's history and character, in such a way as I didn't realize it until months later. The result is this piece I wrote for my blog (too long and with too many photos to reproduce here):

http://gameswriter.blogspot.de/2012/07/my-last-visit-to-dublin-and-why-i-may.html

I've asked an ex-pat blog for their feedback on the piece, so now I thought to ask a native Irish online community for a response. I hope you enjoy it, and maybe see something in it.

IrishAm · 15-07-2012 04:42AM

A smashing read, that. Thanks for sharing it, Bernie.

jay-me · 15-07-2012 05:54AM

Enjoyable read thanks for sharing!

Judgement Day · 15-07-2012 07:42AM

A great read. I've never been to Glasnevin cemetery but I feel that I must after reading your blog. I got Pat Ingoldsby to sign a book for me some years back - I think it was when he used to be outside the Bank of Ireland in College Green.
As the saying goes "the past is a foreign country" and like it or not we can never go back or perhaps we shouldn't try to.

Kilkenny14 · 15-07-2012 09:13AM

Great read Bernie thanks for posting it.

InTheTrees · 15-07-2012 02:54PM

Nice. Thanks for posting.

I was born in Dublin, lived there as a student.

Then I went over 20 years without setting foot in the city. Because my family moved to Galway and I moved to London and then the states.

Incredible to visit last year and see the changes. And by completely missing the tiger I went from the gloom of the mid-80's to the current gloom. Its just the architecture thats changed.

R.Dub.Fusilier · 15-07-2012 08:23PM

. i was thrown off a little by the title, i was expecting something slagging Dublin off. a honest view of Dublin and a good read.

WilcoOut · 16-07-2012 03:28PM

does my nut in - all this 'i cant go back to dublin, it has changed so much'

yeah you left when we were poxy piss poor backwater, you came back and everyone has a few bob, the buildings are modern and classy but you yearn for the auld ****ehouses that we demolished in order to move forward

i always suspect people with this view are gutted when they come home and they cant brag about how well theyre doing and how much they earn and how big their house is etc etc

*im not having a go at the author of the piece, it just reminded me of tonnes of emigres and their return home*

Ant · 17-07-2012 11:55AM

R.Dub.Fusilier wrote: »

. i was thrown off a little by the title, i was expecting something slagging Dublin off. a honest view of Dublin and a good read.

I think that was a clever head-line used by the author. I moved to Dublin from the sticks around the same time he left and since then have come to have a great appreciation for Dublin's mult-facted heritage (one of my favourite blogs is ComeHereToMe). I thought the OP's article was very well-written and found it to be an interesting and honest view on Dublin and Ireland from the perspective of an emigrant who is more thoughtful and reflective than maudlin.

RGM · 17-07-2012 02:13PM

Really interesting to read that point of view, especially as I've only just recently come back from a visit "home." The difference being that, instead of a return, my trip was my first to Ireland. And while the OP viewed his reunion as a fond, if bittersweet, farewell, I saw my journey as the start of something new.

I'm third-generation Irish, as both of my father's parents moved to the States back in the 1950s. (Less relevant, but still interesting, is that 15/16 of my mother's great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland. Her side has been in the US for much longer though, since the famine, and there are no existing Irish family connections through her.) I grew up around my grandparents and was always very aware and proud of my Irish heritage and surname. I always took it for granted that someday I'd do my Irish history homework and go visit the old place. I took it for granted right up until my grandfather passed away last February.

My grandfather was a great man. A worker. Smart, kind, grounded. I have never and will never respect anyone more. The day I drove up to say goodbye to him was easily the worst day of my life. And after he passed, I realized how little interest I'd actually shown in his past, his family, his roots. It wasn't that I didn't care, it's that I always thought, well, we'll get to that later. Isn't that always the way?

So last year I made a firm decision to visit Ireland ASAP, which meant this summer. And as the date approached and I began firming up plans, I did indeed begin to do my homework, starting with the family tree. I've been doing family research pretty much every day for the past few months now.

Sorry. I've just realized that I'm strapping in to write a novel here, and that's not going to happen. Long story, short: The OP, as a native, feels he may never return while I, a third-gen Irish-American, feel compelled to go back, perhaps permanently. I felt a connection there that I've never felt before.

Raiser · 17-07-2012 08:56PM

Enjoyed that - Thanks Bernie.

- You should hang about on Boards - if I ever ended up abroad and missed home/just wanted to keep in touch with every facet of Irish life and times I'd live on here!

Sunnyisland · 19-07-2012 07:29PM

Great enjoyable if not sad read, Thanks bernie.

I myself was away from Ireland for 12 years, 94 to 06, Just back once in them years and was quite astounded by the changes in peoples attitudes and places.

bernieduffy · 06-08-2012 07:10PM

Thanks everyone for the kind replies! I've gotten a good amount of positive feedback on the piece, even though I realize it might have been a dramatic attention-grabber of a title for a fairly subtle bit of writing. I was a bit worried I might have been too harsh or judgmental on my hometown, or that I was making too strong an ultimatum, but I wanted to explain that disconnect from the city that spawned me along certain terms.

Stojkovic · 12-08-2012 09:42PM

"empty glass fronted office blocks along the quays that once housed thriving communities"

In the 80s ?

I dont think so, the place was a derelict ****hole.

dave2pvd · 12-08-2012 11:57PM

Stojkovic wrote: »

"empty glass fronted office blocks along the quays that once housed thriving communities"

In the 80s ?

I dont think so, the place was a derelict ****hole.

Right. A mouth full of broken teeth.

HavingCrack · 21-08-2012 11:22AM

Stojkovic wrote: »

"empty glass fronted office blocks along the quays that once housed thriving communities"

In the 80s ?

I dont think so, the place was a derelict ****hole.

Yeah, the quays had been declining since the 50's/60's to be honest. There was absolutely nothing there in the 80's, it was just a dead zone-no thriving communities that's for sure.

My Last Visit to Dublin (and why I may never go back again)

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