A Postcard from Dublin

You can’t help not liking the Irish. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that they are my most favourite people on the planet - especially for their wonderful hospitality, friendliness and their reluctance to rush anything. It’s all a far cry from my fellow British citizens.

You only have to wait for a Guinness to know that it takes a few minutes before you can finally get your hands on that pint of delicious black gold. But it’s not only the stout that won’t be rushed, as even the DART commuter train seemed to shrug its shoulders as it happily ambled its way from one side of Dublin bay to the other. It’s all so relaxing and it makes such a change to other manic European cities such as London and Paris.

It was my first visit to that melting pot of a city known as Dublin and although I’m no Ireland virgin – with my work taking me to Cork on numerous occasions – I was quite surprised by the number of Polish people there – even more than I’ve noticed in the UK. Heck, there’s even a separate section in the Evening Herald newspaper dedicated to all things Polish every Friday.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I admire their willing and they all work extremely hard, but it was a great shame to hear more Polish accents than a rich Irish one. Even one of stewardesses on the plane was Polish to the degree that I couldn’t understand a single word she was saying over the tannoy. For all that I understood she may well have being speaking in her native Polish, or even Gaelic.

Another thing that surprised me was the amount of building work in and around Dublin. After seeing many of the tiger economies of Asia with my own eyes, it’s no wonder that Ireland is known as the Celtic Tiger economy of Europe. Mind you, this comes with its problems as house prices in Dublin are more expensive than London or even New York. It’s no wonder that people are complaining they can’t afford to buy a house, plus there appears to be a worrying number of empty apartment and office blocks – and they still continue to build more. Dublin will be really nice once they finish building it!