Response To Q: ‘Why Won’t Dubs Ever Leave Dublin?’ Is Just Beautiful

Darragh Berry

It’s easy when you’re living in Dublin or have been a Dub since birth, to focus just on the negative stuff.

When reddit user, SilentSiege asked Dubliners online, why they refuse to leave the capital to venture elsewhere, we’re sure he wasn’t expecting such a strong reply.

He added to his question by stating that:

“Dublin seems to be made up of mainly very dense housing, horrific traffic, crowds of people overpaying for basics and strung-out knackers.

“Not sure why Dubs refuse to leave Dublin under any circumstances when it comes to college, their career or just life in general?”

One of the first replies to his question hit back, hard:

“Take a walk through the yellow furze on Howth Head in the summer. Watch the Irish sea sparkle as far as the horizon while the nesting gulls squeal all around you. Then stop of at The Summit Inn on the way down for a deserved pint. Take the bus out to Skerries and take in the view of the Mourne Mountains from Ardgillan Castle.

“Get on your bike and cycle the country lanes in Clongriffin out through Malahide and round by Portmarnock and if you’re a fit fucker you can keep going through Sutton and Clontarf all along the coast watching the Lapwings, Oystercatchers and all manner of wading birds pick out a living at low tide.

“Or if the sea air isn’t for you you could go out to the north county, out by St. Margaret’s, Old Town, The Naul you’ll find an embassy of rural Ireland if you’re in the mood for something quieter.

“Or go into the city, take a walk around the Georgian areas, visit the Natural History Museum, the Writers Museum, the National Gallery or any other of the many museums. Visit Kilmainham Gaol, feel the bullet holes in the pillars of the GPO. Go down Talbot Street and pause for a moment at the memorial to the people killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and sure while you’re feeling reflective stop by the Garden of Remembrance.

“Sure we’ve come this far we’ll go out through Chapelizod by the Liffey and it’s a big oul hill there but just over it you’ve got The Anglers Rest or if you have a bit more power we can push on the The Strawberry Bed’s and have a quiet one in Strawberry Hall and after we’ll practically be in Kildare in no time.

“Then we could go back into town and over the Liffey, wind our way through Portabello, over the canal and out into Rathmines and take a wander to Rathfarnam where the Wicklow Way starts (or ends, depending) and sure from there it’s only a quick spring over the border into Wicklow where you’ll be safe among your own and no longer in our horrible, knacker infested kip.

“I will give you a final tip though even though it’s not Dublin, go to Greystones and do the walk to Bray, reward yourself with some chips. You’ve had a traumatic day.

“Seriously though, people who bash Dublin like this generally never see more of the place than the city centre.

“I’m a Dub but when the time comes to start a family I’d personally be more interested in somewhere ‘down the country’ but people who bash Dublin or think the whole county is the city are missing out.”

Just beautiful.