Dublin,
Ireland
October Present
Dublin:
a city of contrast.
For over twenty years, Dublin existed as such and not about to
change any time soon.
The city was the heritage Mecca
gateway for the many Americans, Canadians, and Australians who traced their
ancestral roots to Ireland.
The mystical tie lived in the hearts of the descendant Irish, a song called from
abroad, and even drove them to hyphenate their nationality secondary to their
Irish roots, such as in Irish-American.
This Dublin
appealed and attracted millions of tourists, and reaped the benefit of this
industry. The commercial pubs boasted authentic Irish drink and song, the
trendy shopping districts around St. Stephen’s Green in which tourists paid top
dollar for Irish depression-wear, and the festivals and shows with the happy
dancing and singing Irish people everywhere. Certain citizens made money hand
over fist in such ventures. A jumble of different architecture styles, Dublin lacked a distinct visual
identity of its own. Due to the charm and personality of its people, Dublin remained a travel
destination.
The west knew this Dublin. The western world loved this Dublin.
Another Dublin
existed.
The other Dublin
revolved around a country where no self-supporting industry other than being
Irish existed. A full thirty percent of the people in this Dublin found themselves out of work. Add
another forty percent of the population under-employed. These statistics
revealed despair, hopelessness, shame, pain, and depression as the chief industry
in Dublin. Irish
media referred to the economic disaster as The Drop, meaning everything dropped
including the stock market, the housing industry, job market, and the mood of
the country. Depression led to drinking. Drinking led to anger. Anger led to fighting.
Every night, the local precinct jails filled with alcoholic fighting Irish. A
drunken tank full of unconscious Irish people did not present a prime tourism
poster. The situation in the rural countryside even exceeded Dublin, where poverty affected nearly everyone
without the urban diversity to sustain industry when the prime way of life
dried up.
Even the long-standing hatred of the British and
the struggle between the Green and the Orange
motivated Ireland
out of this misery. Cultural pride and aggression inspired few parades since
the commencement of the depression. Neither malevolent nor benign causes mustered
enough organizational emotion to boast or taunt on the streets.
The masses showed their despair in their carriage
and demeanor. Any pedestrian street in Dublin
consisted of people too desolate to look at another. The people resembled a
shambled and ragged lot, who searched for work, and waited in line at the
parish soup kitchens. They existed from one waking moment to another before the
end of the day to drown their sorrows in ale.
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