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Dublin and the rest of Ireland

8K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Skyline_ 
#1 ·
This is a subject which interests me, namely the relationship between our primate city - Dublin - and the rest of the island. You see numerous threads in boards.ie about this which usually degenerate into either culchies are all stupid or Dublin is a crack-infested kip. I'm sure that the discourse on SSC can be far higher so that is why I'm launching a thread to discuss how Dublin, our main city, relates to the rest of Ireland and vice versa.

As a Dub with rural parents I've always felt the divide between urban and rural in this country, the binary state of Dub and non-Dub so I'm very interested in other people's perspective on what Dublin means to them and how they see Ireland and Dublin relating to one another.

Dublin looms large in our national consciousness, even our island consciousness and why wouldn't it? It accounts for 1/5th of the island's population, over a sixth of the island's economic output, 2/3rds of air traffic and about half of port traffic on this island. In every sphere, be it economic, social, political or sporting, Dublin has a huge sway. This is similar to other primate cities in small European states like Denmark (Copenhagen), Finland (Helsinki) and Norway (Oslo).

Therefore I'm extremely interested in what other SSCers think about how Dublin relates to the rest of Ireland and vice versa. I also want to know if they think we have a good state of affairs with such a dominant primary city and what needs to be done in order to ensure that Dublin and the rest of Ireland continue in harmony.
 
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#2 ·
Well put it this way. I was in Limerick last week and some people were friendly to me, that is until I opened my mouth:lol: "You're from fucking Dublin? **** sake!"

I do think there is a divide. Not a major one but on a banter level I think a lot of country folk dislike us. Its 31 v 1 after all. Some people say that country women love our accent but I've never gotten that vibe haha! On a serious level, I don't think there's much in it. The only thing I'd say is you get a few people who complain when Dublin gets something. A bit like "why do they get a brand new terminal?" sort of thing.

I do love culchies though:)
 
#3 ·
I think the Culchie vs Jackeen thing is mostly good natured banter but there certainly is an element of resentment that we get certain services that the rest of the country doesn't.

One thing that I always found funny is that like half the people in Dublin are form outside it or have at least one parent from another county. Yet still Dublin gets a lot of hate.
 
#4 ·
I find that Dublin and Ireland would probably be a lot better balanced demographically-speaking if it was a united state. Dublin is way ahead of any other population centre in the Republic (Cork is only about a sixth the size) and has almost 1/3rd of the population. In an Ireland containing the six northern counties Dublin is only 2 and a bit times larger than Belfast and accounts for one fifth of the island's population. Therefore, in a state of 6.4 million people, Dublin wouldn't seem so far out of step with the rest of the country.

I also think that if Dublin and Belfast were in the same state the attitude of Dublin versus the rest would break down a bit as Belfast being a significant city shares many of the same attributes with Dublin. It would become more of an urban versus rural attitude.
 
#5 ·
It accounts for 1/5th of the island's population, over a sixth of the island's economic output, 2/3rds of air traffic and about half of port traffic on this island. In every sphere, be it economic, social, political or sporting, Dublin has a huge sway
Now there's an interesting statistic; 1/5th of the islands population but only c. a 1/6th of its economic output. Compare that with London's economic hold over the UK, or even Manchester's disproportionate share of NW England's output, and it doesn't look too bad (for non-Dubliners).
 
#7 ·
While checking up on this I found that Dublin in fact accounts for 40% of economic output in the Republic. Based on that figure Dublin has roughly a third of the share of island output. In terms of Dublin related to the rest of the Republic it is quite dominant, even more so than Seoul, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

One of the little ways you can see how important Dublin is is in the weather reports. Both on Met Éireann's website and in the Irish Times Dublin is given its own regional forecast. It is the only county in Ireland ascribed such treatment.
 
#8 ·
I am in my mid twenties and a culchie but I live and work in Dublin. A lot of people like me return to "the home place" each weekend. I return home most weekends, mainly because I still play GAA at home, so if I need to do a bit of shopping at the weekend, get my hair cut, socialise, etc. I do it in my home town. This is obviously a boost to the economy there and acts as a transfer of wealth from Dublin (where I earn the money) to a regional town (where I spend some of my money). Many of these people will probably look to return to their home town when they get a little older, or if they are still working in Dublin, move closer to home and commute to Dublin. This seems to happen on a large scale here and I think it helps to smooth out the imbalance of so much of our economy being focused on Dublin. I would suggest it benefits our economy overall by keeping the Dublin economy from overheating and keeping other regions a little more self sufficient than they otherwise would be. I am not sure but I dont think this happens in other countries as much.
 
#9 ·
I would suggest it benefits our economy overall by keeping the Dublin economy from overheating and keeping other regions a little more self sufficient than they otherwise would be. I am not sure but I dont think this happens in other countries as much.
Those are interesting points PeteC. There are indeed a huge number of people from the country who live and work in Dublin during the week and head back to their real home during the weekends and at holidays. That's why I find it quite perplexing that there's this real antipathy towards Dublin from people outside the county. It's the place where many culchies go to college, get their first job, do their shopping, start their foreign holidays etc. It's actually quite fortunate for us as a small country to have a city of international scale like Dublin which puts Ireland on the map.

I also think GAA is a major difference between Dublin and other counties. For rural areas, the GAA club is a huge focus for the social life of towns, villages and areas. This is not so much the case in Dublin where thousands of people don't even know the name of their local club. GAA doesn't occupy the mind of the average Dub in the same way as in other counties - other sports and pursuits tend to take up time in ways that they don't in other counties.
 
#10 ·
One of the ways in which Dublin and the rest of Ireland are definitely different at the moment is in terms of economics. The capital seems to be in a full-scale recovery at the moment while places like Cavan, Donegal and Waterford remain in recession. Even Dublin pubs are seeing small increases in customers compared to declines for rural pubs. Hotels in Dublin are also much busier and there's evidence of new house-building and property transactions which are completely absent from other counties. Moreover, the lion's share of all new FDI announcements are for the capital. Of the 1,500 or so jobs announced and commented upon here, at least half of them will be created in the Dublin area. As a result of this we could see an increase in the population weight for County Dublin in the next census as thousands of people inwardly migrate from other areas in Ireland to the capital for work.
 
#11 ·
What about Saoirse Ronan's homeland? Is it as beautiful as she is?




Fookin' ell!
 
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