GROWING UP IN Dublin is tough. No really.
1. Didn’t know your neighbours, yet they’re right there
You may not know them by name, but they’ll know everything about you thanks to those twitching curtains. You probably only knew them by how cranky they were. Lady in number 15 didn’t like chalk on the road, and the aul fella in 27 hates you playing hide and seek near the car.
2. You were given bus tickets instead of lifts
In the country you might be forced to ask for some lifts, but it’s on the bus with you now that there’s a good service in Dublin. These would be everywhere:
Every Dubliner’s saddest day was when they started looking too old to pay the schoolchild fare.
3. Where you were born was your inflicted alliance
Are you a Holles street baby? A Coombe baby? Born in The Rotunda? It would set you out on a life path, well, at least that’s what the constant discussions you’d have about it would imply.
4. Visiting your cousins in the country was like a round trip to Australia
You had to visit the country cousins… AGAIN? Sure isn’t Kildare hours away.
5. ‘School traffic’ were two of the dirtiest words
The worst. Just the worst.
6. Stopping for cars on the road was the biggest inconvenience of your young life
You had to wait for them to pass before you could resume play. Team that with all the opportunities to kick it out of reach…
7. Being sent to The Shops
Being allowed go to The Shops on your own as a child was a rare but BIG deal. It was near enough for you to go to get mam some milk, so you were never off the radar.
8. Learning to drive was way harder
The city’s failing rate is far higher than most of our country comparatives. And is it any surprise? There are things, everywhere.
9. The battle of the schools
Where you went to school was a big deal… until you left school. Then nobody really cared. At the time though, the choice between heading down the road to the community college or setting off on the bus to the CBS was all to be blamed on your parents. The there were the likes of Blackrock college and Loreto on the Green… or, dare we say… the institute.
10. Going to college was nothing to look forward to
For most people, going off to college comes with a surge of new independence and the excitement of moving away from home. For you, it was most likely a bus journey down the road.
11. Street lights coming on meant it was time to go home
QUICK.
12. The green was a trek
If you had no garden, it was all you had. However, chances are it’s at least a 10 minute walk from your house and your mam wanted you to stay where she could see you today. Foiled again.
13. You actually haven’t been to most Dublin tourist attractions
Unless it was a school tour, you didn’t get around to it… Now ask us again what’s the best thing to visit in Dublin?
