“I’ll remember Dublin city, in the rare ould times”
“And their sons will be respected men, and they will be established as judges over your sons; they will govern your city and they will buy your field, for the universal conscience gives them expressly all these rights.” – Maurice Bardèche.
A foul odor welcomes those who venture into the entropic heart of Dublin. Their nasal inevitably encounters a collage of piss, horse and junkie shit, vomit, and an unknown noxious scent that is likely sui generis to “Dublin’s fair city”.
Dublin’s increasingly diverse populace compliments the heterogeneous stench. Once home to its famous market, Moore Street is now distinguished (and disfigured) by the voluminous Gypsies that roam its streets. A frequent sight is groups of Gypsy men huddling together in large packs, subtly conveying to passers-by that this is THEIR area now.
Flanking the descendants of India’s untouchable caste are an array of West African and Oriental business. Our enterprising Bantu friends specialise in the sale of trashy synthetic wigs, while the Orientals tend to fix phones and other tech trinkets for a cheap fee. Regardless of the great gifts their presence has bestowed, one wonders if they know who surrendered to the British on Moore Street in Easter 1916? And if by chance they’re cognisant, do they care?
A leper stumbles onward among the eclectic Moore Street throng. Although disfigured by vice, his face smacks of a familiar native stamp. The Dublin Junkie, lamentably, is the last vestige of Irishness left in the center of our capital. Neither foreign tongue nor the threat of Igbo and Yoruba mobs will dissuade him from getting his next fix. In the face of an increasingly non-Irish Ireland, the Junkie marches on.
Footage from the late 90s and early 2000s reveals Dublin’s shockingly rapid descent into a cosmopolitan morass. I experienced a strange feeling upon my first viewing of Paul Tickell’s debut film, Crushproof. Released in 1998, Crushproof is a thoroughly Dublin film, from the accents and faces (there is a Dub face) to the locale featured.
When juxtaposed with contemporary Dublin, it becomes truly jarring how much this city has changed in less than a quarter century. Many nationalists rhetorically query what the leaders of ’16 would think of modern Ireland; a better question: what would an inner-city gurrier from the year 2000 think?
Horse Raids and Männerbunds in North Dublin
“And we hunted, like young lions, death with its black fur dappled with pale crosses, who ran before us in the vast violet sky, palpable and living” – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, ‘The Futurist Manifesto’
An ominous sound accompanies the opening shots of Crushproof. Reminiscent of a church bell, it forebodingly signals what’s to come. Above the motorway, we witness six figures atop unsaddled horses, traversing the overpass – a meeting of the modern and the archaic.
Soon after, we encounter our anti-hero protagonist, Neal. A young Dublin ruffian who has just been informed that he is to be released from the ‘joy. However, he soon finds himself facing the prospects of renewing his domicile in said penal institution, after the young mother of his son calls the Garda on a persistent Neal.
Rather than acquiesce to the heat, Neal re-groups with his old crew and begins his Odyssey. Thereafter, the Northside Männerbund experiences: revenge, murder, fighting, drink, anti-garda insurgency, the death of old friends, robbery, and even incestuous cuckoldry. And who can forget them “Ravin’ in Glasnevin. Techno! Techno!”. Recounting these events in detail would not do them justice – watch the film.
Despite the dark subject matter, the humorous wit of the North Dublin crew, especially Neal, prevents the flick from straying into unnecessary melancholy. Lamenting the poor prospects that await lads from his background, Neal states: “There’s no tit waiting for you when you grow up, just the dole. Then a hole for your knob. Then another in the nut. And then another fucking hole in the ground for your corpse”.
The prominent feature of horses – quite common throughout the estates of North and West Dublin – throughout Crushproof buttresses its authenticity. Upon re-grouping with his friends, Neal is brought to the grave of his horse, subsequently descending into a state of mourning; Sean tells Liam, Neal’s talkative friend, to keep quiet and “let the man cry for his Horse”.
The purpose of horses in Crushproof is not limited to being a lazy device by which Tickell can express the emotional complexities of his otherwise stereotypically boorish characters. Instead, the horse represents a primal element, seemingly out of place among the motorways and housing estates of West Dublin.
One witness something truly atavistic when Neal and his crew – all on horseback, with at least one bearing a pitchfork – pursues a former friend of Neal’s with vengeance on their collective consciousness. The protracted struggle between the Garda and Neal’s crew for possession of horses harkens back to the Cattle raids of Ancient Ireland – reminiscent of a modern Táin Bó Cúailnge.
Concluding Remarks: Against the Post Young Fella Society
“The Proletarian is such by his own desire” – Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
Bruck’s statement was written with the intent of criticizing those members of the working class who refused to regard themselves as part of the nation. In the contemporary world, however, those that reject the social order, and instead opt to live in a lumpen prole fashion, are to be commended rather than admonished. It is, after all, more ethical to be a Canada Goose Adorned Finglas Coke Dealer than a Trinity College Humanities graduate who works for an anti-racist NGO.
The dispossession of their horses in Crushproof foreshadowed the on-going dispossession of their nation. After being ravaged by drugs, gangs, and social decay for generations, the working class now faces the brunt of migratory displacement, and the consequent issues which attend it, in their own communities. Particularly disgusting was the verbal abuse that working class shoppers were subjected to immediately after the death of George Nkencho.
Despite all this, I still hold out hope for the native Dub. This is the stock that comprised the ranks of those involved in the 2006 Dublin riots. If one looks at the arrests during the February anti-lockdown protests this year, most were working class young men. For those still not convinced that the native Dub possess enough resolve to oppose our increasingly post-young-fella-society, take heed of Neal’s speech to his crew:
“Fuck your knackers, for Christ sake. The knackers were refugees from Cromwell. We’re the Old tribe, the old ones. We’re the bleedin’ Bedouins. We’re the toerags of the North. We’ve got the warrior blood. They’ll never crush us cause we’re crushproof. Thousands of years old we are – the industrial revolution is just a blip on my bleedin’ screen”.
DUBLIN- the great human leveler. Get too fancy for your britches or suffer from the ALLUSION THAT YER BETTER, return from epic world trips or adventures,or you think BUTTER WOULDN’T MELT IN YOUR MOUTH,
it puts you and life in its proper place.Sad to se it destroyed by the elite neoliberal globalist NACKERS that frequent its shops n streets,a massive shame on so called planners,councils and govts. who destroyed such a great CITY OF HERITAGE. The Wankers have always hated THE POOR DUB ,
they could never get him TO HEEL because he walked about his town richer than they ever were or dreamed. REBUILD THE CITY a globalist Calcutta .
That was a good film, very irish and distinctive. Of course any irish film nowadays they would have to cast every nationality under the sun to keep up with globalist culture. Shur, they now cast cuchulainn as an african, even though he is described as white irish in the tain.
The youth and their horses around the dublin and limerick areas, and the bravado when they go around on them is an interesting part of Ireland, i always see it as being the old remnants of the old irish celtic/gael culture coming out in the psyche. Irish blood is distinctively celtic, but with some viking too. Some of them even go around on what really are chariots. Similar to the tain, like Cuchulain going around on his chariot. There is a real wildness there, it is like a revolt to being urbanised. Some of them really care for the horses too and the horses develop a real character in them.
The travellers too have a part of that old celtic/gaelic culture, of course the travellers have only remnants of the old celtic culture. Modern times are very different. They love their horses though, and their clan system is interesting, funny how those guys see themselves as an ethnic minority, their clan system is a very irish thing, ancient gaels used a similar clan system, with the one chief, the head of the tribe. In traveller society, there is almost always a tribal chief of the family, that the others respect. It is a very masculine, male-driven culture, very similar to the old gaelic ones.
A lot of travellers have ancient Gaelic surnames, a lot of them would descend from Gaels, very old gaelic clans. They are not related to romanis, the travellers are Gaels, look at their surnames, some descend from normans. Then you have them going around on what really are chariots in the sulky races that they do, and the one on one bareknuckle bouts is very celtic from a martial perspective, the celts liked to settle their disputes with one on one battles. Cuchulainn vs Ferdia etc. The old ireland, the old STAG ON STAG combat in the forests. If ancient gaels could avoid a war, then they would opt for the 1 on 1. But travellers don’t really follow that code anymore, lots of feuding, and some of them are involved in criminality.
Very immaturely written and quite boring
Not as close to being as boring as you Andrew.
Briliant
There’s an interesting theme of Irish and Dublin representation on celluloid.
Native Irish ‘displacement’ could comfortably use the word ‘replacement’. Such as the ease in London by the media to call the multitude of various 2nd generation Africans, Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis ‘Londoners’. The omission to say ethnic or black when the news is negative, for example, the almost daily stabbing murder tally is revealing.
Two films set in Ireland: the first being a 50 year piece titled, ‘Flight of the Doves’; one stand-out scene is the beckoning to join a St. Patrick’s day parade with the exhortation of ‘You don’t have to be Irish to be Irish’?!
The second is the relatively recent movie, ‘The Stag’: the finale song about the ‘bright and beautiful diverse “new Ireland”‘ was a real humdinger.
The national people of Ireland face plenty of demographic challenges along the way and one bright red flag the hyphenation of their identity into ‘white Irish’. Absurd.
I should add and clarify the representations of the Irish and the entirety of Ireland on film, not only Dublin.
Perhaps, The Burkean would inform me of the timeline for large-global migration to Ireland? Was it the mid-1990’s , or later? What politician or political decision made that possible. Alan Shatter comes to mind.
Regards from London
Greetings T,
Did you know that London is a celtic name? The word comes from the old celtic Lowonidonjon, that is what they reconstructed it as, probably not a 100% accurate reconstruction, but likely close. London was once a celtic stronghold, until globalist romans came to the party.
As for the mass-immigration into Ireland, a lot of it started in the late 90’s and early 00’s when africans were using anchor babies to gain a foothold into the country, because of an open borders birth-right citizenship law, which was overturned in a 2004 referendum. I guess once those communities started to settle, that is when there was a massive increase in africans seeking asylum. Those communities started they grow, like in britain with the pakistanis, the indians etc. Of course you then had shatter giving out citizenship by the thousands, which is funny him being jewish and all and how irael has very strict border control.
Then you had the EU migration into ireland which easily went into the hundreds of thousands, the sham marriages, the student visas, and now refugee quotas in the thousands too.
Ireland likely is well up there as recieving the most mass-immigration out of all the european countries so far, on an mass-immigration to overall population ratio type statistics.
Some irish nationalists ridicule sweden about mass-immigration, sweden can absorb huge numbers and their population density is still low because sweden is MASSIVE. Swedes can easily move to the countryside. The problems in sweden with high crime rates from mass immigration exists in cities and urban areas. That country is still OK, as swedes can move to the countryside to get away from no-go zones in cities.
Ireland is a small island, if the population density gets higher like the 2040 plan, then ghettoized communities from mass-immigration will be hard to get away from, as ireland is a small country.
Ireland and Britain have got serious problems regarding the effects of mass-immigration.
IRELAND IS A SIGNATORY TO UN – LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL
Correct me if I’m wrong,I want people to check this,according to Article 240 ? of UN CONVENTION,it is ILLEGAL,and classedified as Genocide for a larger POPULATION,ISLAND,CONTINENT to inhabit a Smaller populated Island.If we consider AFRICA is a Continent ,approx 360 times the land mass of Ireland with its much larger population, it being only one example of up to 200+ Places where Foreigners have come from,to reside in Ireland. So it’s illegal,by their own UN laws. The EU is aware of this and equally guilty. The Irish UN elected,no mandate coalition so called govt. is also guilty. Under the same ARTICLE 240? there is PENALTIES FOR BREAKING SAID LAWS.
Let’s no beat about the bush,NOWHERE IN THE WORLD would the REPLANTATION of an Independant Ethnic Civilized Nation be ALLOWED
I do not need A Foreigner like Zappone,or an African,or any other NON-ETHNIC to represent ME at the UN. If my own race of people fails to represent me,THE IRISH GOVERNMENT, then I and fellow ETHNIC IRISH PEOPLE are unwittingly becoming ” A PROTECTED SPECIES ” according to the SAME UN LAWS…so fix the fu.king thing…end of story bulsht
Ireland is wholly owned by the EU ,UN and the IMF to name but a few that successive administrations have sold the nation to. Having destroyed our economic and political independence our ethnic and social identity is now being undermined. The consequences are already being seen.