Sophia Martelli

Travel: Dublin, comeback city

A saner sort of post-crash life is returning to Dublin, says <em>Sophia Martelli</em>

The boom and bust have left their mark on Dublin. Cruising through the outskirts past the (industrial) estate of Sandyford — flimsy-looking buildings, each as nastily designed as the last but in wildly different styles — I double-take at a gigantic half-built multi-storey car park. There are ‘To Let’ signs everywhere and it’s all a bit reminiscent of a Joni Mitchell song.

But the shiny new Luas tram which links this monument to property development greed to the centre of the city is quiet, efficient and fast — and Dublin is, thank heavens, still the ‘fair city’ of the song, the Liffey meandering unruffled and majestic through the middle of it. Many of the handsome Georgian buildings around O’Connell Street have benefited from a boom buff-up, with decrepit ceilings painstakingly restored and exterior brickwork properly pointed: their grandeur convinces any visitor of Dublin’s ‘second city of Europe’ status back in the 18th century.

New features abound too: in place of Nelson’s Pillar (blown up by the IRA in 1966) is the ‘Monument of Light’, a steel needle sticking 121 metres into the air. Nearby on North Earl Street a brass version of James Joyce, introduced in 1990, lounges on his walking stick in the manner of Charlie Chaplin. Locals have their own names for the pair of them: the needle is the ‘Pin in the Bin’ (north of the Liffey is generally thought to be a bit rough) while Joyce is ‘the Prick with the Stick’. I imagine this is -affectionate.

Over the river in the more refined south, around Drury Street, chic restaurants with sharp typography and a respectful attitude to heritage abound; they’re good at food, too (see also: the Winding Stair, Chapter One, Pichet). At the bar at the excellent Coppinger Row, restaurateur Benedict Gorman (who until the crash ran the beloved Mermaid Café on Dame Street, as well as Gruel next door) was considering a new venture in the city.

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