While the public have been rightly appalled at the recent unprovoked attack on an American tourist on Dublin’s Talbot Street, some of the commentary, suggesting that some parts of the north inner city are ‘no-go areas’, bordered on the hysterical. In fact, overall statistics for violent crime, both nationally and for Dublin city, have been in decline in recent years. In my 44 years as a resident of the inner city (33 on the north side), I have never witnessed or been the victim of a violent attack—which was not the case in the leafy southside suburb where I spent my teenage years.
Nevertheless, there is a real problem of a tiny minority of feral youth who seem to be beyond the reach of the education system, social services or the rule of law. While the resulting discourse has concentrated on the latter (and, yes, an increase in the number of gardaí on the beat will surely help), there must be a joined-up response across all sectors. This is one of the most historically deprived areas of the country—with substandard housing, generational unemployment and, since the 1980s, the scourge of drug addiction. (For reference to the Concerned Parents Against Drugs movement, see Niall Meehan’s review of Gearóid Ó Faoleán’s A broad church: the Provisional IRA in the Republic of Ireland Vol. 2, p. 67.)
This is also, however, a neighbourhood steeped in history and culture, home to such architectural gems as the Pro-Cathedral—inexplicably about to be downgraded and redesignated a ‘basilica’ by the Catholic hierarchy. It was the crucible of the 1916 Rising and the site of a sizeable chunk of Joyce’s Ulysses, described by F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘as the great novel of the future’. (See Angus Mitchell’s review of Luke Gibbons’s James Joyce and the Irish revolution, pp 60–1.) And it has its own sense of folklore and nostalgia. (See IFI Film Eye, p. 47, a new joint venture between History Ireland and the Irish Film Institute.)
Finally, in the plethora of recent centenaries, we missed an important one of our own earlier this year—the 30th anniversary of the founding of History Ireland. To mark this particular milestone, from 2 October 2023 Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council will host an exhibition in the Lexicon Library and Cultural Centre of our 159 front covers and four supplement covers to date.
6 Palmerston Place, Dublin 7
editor@historyireland.com