In Dublin's Fair City: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

{{quote|''"In Dublin's fair city,''<br />

''Where the girls are so pretty,''<br />

''I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,''<br />

''As she pushed her wheelbarrow''<br />

''Through streets broad and narrow,''<br />

Dublin (From the Irish ''"Dubh Linn"'' meaning ''"Black Pool"'' but it's official Irish name is ''"Áth Cliath"'' meaning ''"The Hurdled Ford"'') is the capital of [[Useful Notes/Ireland|Ireland]], the [[The Irish Diaspora|third-largest Irish city]] after [[Big Applesauce|New York]] and [[Useful Notes/Boston (useful notes)|Boston]], and the largest city on the island with a population of about 1 million, including suburbs, and 1.6 million including the population of surrounding counties.

Officially, Dublin celebrated its milleniummillennium in 1988 (making the city a spry 10201030 at time of writing), but that was just a brazen excuse to hold a party: the [[Horny Vikings|Vikings]] established a stronghold in the Liffey River back in 841 (and even before that there was [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Eblana |Eblana]]). Dublin was an important Hiberno-Norse kingdom for centuries, before <s> some different French accented Vikings</s> the Normans arrived and turned it into the centre of English (and later British) power in Ireland for centuries.

Perhaps surpisinglysurprisingly, Dublin turns up pretty infrequently in [[Oireland|Hollywood versions of Ireland]]; Hollywood seems to prefer picturesque bucolic Irish villages. The reverse is true of Irish-made films and TV shows, almost all of which are set in Dublin - think like (English) [[Canadian Series]] and [[Toronto]], but [[Up to Eleven|even more so]]. This is mostly due to fact that the majority of Irish production companies are based in Dublin and it makes it logistically easier to set a film or tv series in Dublin as opposed to Cork, Limerick or Galway.

Note that there are no parts of Dublin officialyofficially named 'the Northside' or 'the Southside' - they are geographical expressions, a bit like the 'Deep South' in America. Trust me, everyone will know what you mean.

The Northside is traditionally poorer, more Catholic and, to some, more 'Irish' - it is the part you see in Roddy Doyle films. The Southside is historically richer, more cosmopolitan and more Anglophile (hence the insult 'West Brit'). Northsiders play Gaelic sports and soccer; Southsiders play rugby, which is an upper middle class sport in Ireland. Southsiders see Northsiders as druggies and muggers, Northsiders see Southsiders as... well [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] is a very much cleaned up version.

Dublin 4 (D 4) is ''so'' Southside that even other Southsiders laugh at people from there: a popular series of books starring a D 4 character named Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (both an [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]] ''and'' a [[Jerk Jock]]) are a major hit in Ireland.

Cork is the second city in Ireland (not including [[Stroke Country|Belfast]]), and the largest county. It also has the most jingoistic inhabitants. Corkonians like to think of their city as the ''real'' capital of Ireland - culturally, and at sport at least, and carry on a strong--butstrong—but entirely one-sided--rivalrysided—rivalry with Dubliners. By and large the "feud" is little more than a cliché, most Corkonians and pretty much all Dubliners just ignore it. The only exception is when it comes down to sport, but even here the Corkonians are much more enthusiastic about the whole feud thing than the Dubs. Notably, the Northside/Southside divide also exists in Cork. However, South Corkonians are in no way the same as South Dubs.

To celebrate the ''other'' millennium the city set up a 393 &nbsp;ft tall metal spire in the middle of O'Connell Street. It's... well, it's [[Freud Was Right|tall and metal and pointy]], and possibly not the best idea to build in a city with a heroin problem. Still the Spire has inspired a few affectionate nicknames, many of them even printable ('the stiletto in the ghetto' or the 'stiffy on the Liffey' for instance).

'''{{examples|Dublin in fiction:'''}}

* ''[[Ross O Carroll KellyOnce]]''

* ''[[Artemis Fowl (Literature)|Artemis Fowl]]''

[[Category:In DublinsDublin's Fair City]]