Dublin is in many respects a bloated provincial town – one stretching out in kilometers in each direction to accommodate over a million people, as opposed to a kilometer in each to accommodate ten thousand.

Large buildings are the exception rather than the rule, and tend not to be magnificent stone-worked buildings of State but glass and steel obelisks of corporate power. A great retort by many south Dubs objecting to large-developments is that large buildings are an eyesore, yet anyone who has been to Munich or Vienna can tell you that large buildings can be aesthetic, can host a certain grandeur lacking in the brutal 50 story Anglo-American slum-towers of New York or London.

Ugly buildings are a feature of the Anglo-Saxon mindset, not a function of large buildings, and small buildings can be equally as ugly.

The Hungarian Parliament building dominates the city of Budapest and can be seen from near any point of the river or surrounding hills. 

Hungarian Parliament Building - Wikipedia

The Irish parliament building in contrast is a squat townhouse owned previously by a well-to-do Imperial Planter – never an uglier parliament building has there been.

Dublin’s only aesthetic saving graces are the handful of historic buildings still in existence – the Four Courts, the Custom House, Grattan’s Parliament, Christchurch and St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Belfast by contrast has the proper feel of a city – albeit a city with the energy of Eastern Europe like Prague or Warsaw. It still has great edifices of stone, a sense that one is living in a large urban area, and as one journeys into South or West Belfast, one comes also against the expressions of national and ethnic identity that a city should possess – in Divis Tower and the Falls, a tricolour flies from the windows of every third or fourth house, flags that are replaced regularly so as not to look ragged. Even the butchers apron hanging from every lamppost gives Belfast more character than Dublin – Dublin which flies only the national flag with the European flag higher than it, Dublin which flies the flag of homosexuals and foreign countries with greater vehemence than it flies its own flag in love and pride.

When was the last time every shop front painted a tricolour in their window, as they do with the flag of Ukraine, or flew them from lampposts or on those god-awful machines used for electronic advertising?

While Belfast is no doubt culturally pozzed, with the same degenerates swannying about the city, there are significantly fewer than in Dublin and the ethnic tribalism of its inhabitants is clear and on display – Belfast has several good watering holes for trad sessions, Dublin a relative paucity. I have seen consistently better trad sessions in parts of Sligo and Leitrim, in villages of a thousand people, than I’ve seen in Dublin.

This is not a call to make Belfast the capital when we unite the island – but a plea that we today level Dublin and in its place build a city worth living in, one that is Irish, Gaelic, and proud. A magnificent city on the river and sea, strong and with her head held high.

Posted by Gearóid Ó Briain

4 Comments

  1. Dublin 1 is a ******* rubbish dump . Litter , vermin , junkies , alcoholics & homeless are ubiquitous . Possibly , the biggest tip to be found in any european city .

    Reply

  2. James Seymour 27/04/2022 at 7:35 pm

    They should move the Dail back to College Green. The BoI buildings are far more worthy than Leinster house. Though I firmly disagree that all 50 story Anglo-American buildings are terrible. The Isle of Dogs and La Defense are among the prettiest districts in their respective cities. The Tokyo skyline is stunning. Even the New York skyline isn’t so bad (though it must be said that, for all his sins, Osama improved it a little – the Twin Towers were hideous).

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  3. Mary Stasia Concannon 28/04/2022 at 1:00 am

    That is a beautiful thought.

    Reply

  4. Ivaus@thetricolour 01/05/2022 at 7:48 am

    Leinster House should never have existed. The Mansion House Dublin is the birth place of an all Ireland vote for its Independence and democratic respect to its people. That Independence and democracy have been stripped away since any government sat,or sits in Leinster House.
    It does not matter where you relocate,even for astetic reasons, because anywhere traitors of the Irish sit,govern or sellout EVERYTHING IRISH, it has demonstrated that they are the Enemy’s Of The State and it’s People.
    A United Ireland/United Irishmen will evolve,not a SF,FF,FG,FFGG or any
    Party that washed its hands in the cesspit trof of the Traitors House.
    Oh it will happen,it is happening now and that’s why those selfish bastards in govt. now scurry about to line their pockets before the game is up.
    But, the game is up now,has been for a long time and there is nowhere in the
    World or Future that they will not be found,for trying to peddle a Paddy.

    Reply

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