Is Dublin fit for purpose?

Photo: Kelsey Doogan

Dublin is located on the east coast of the green isle of Ireland, on the outskirts of Europe, with a population of nearly 600,000 people in the Dublin City Council area alone. 

But when people talk about Dublin, what exactly do they talk about? The Spire on O’Connell Street? Shopping on Grafton Street? The city’s many third-level institutions? 

The drugs? The crime levels? The high cost of living in general?

Life in Dublin can often be glamorised, especially for young people ready to take that next step in their education or young adults looking for good jobs in big offices. Some are lucky enough to have family or friends in the capital and can therefore avoid some of the high prices and have someone to explain how to navigate the streets of the city. 

The rising cost of accommodation is a huge factor driving people out into the suburbs, from where they can commute to work or school while saving money on rent. 

The Liberty talked to several young people about their lives in and around the city.

“I went to UCD for college and now also work in a lab in Dublin. I was lucky that my parents own an apartment here and I didn’t have to worry about looking for accommodation. My older siblings lived here too while they were in college and my sister still lives with me now,” Áine Corley tells The Liberty. 

Corley says her social life with her friends on nights out allowed her to see a less nice side of Dublin such as fights, open drug-dealing and more.  

“It’s the part people don’t really like to talk about as much, we all like to see the good in something but not necessarily the bad.”

Even people who only visit Dublin for a day still get to see some of its many problems such as homelessness – something that is very prominent on the streets of Dublin. 

“I travel up and down to college each day and even I know Dublin has its problems, I don’t think I can remember a day when I haven’t seen homeless people there,” Maggie Kieran says.

Many people dream about spending their young adult years living in a big city with lots of restaurants, theatres and things to do but unfortunately, they can be turned off this dream by the realisation of the increased risk of crime and drugs on their door step. 

The Irish capital is certainly not a 24-hour city in terms of transport and bars or shops. Most public transport finishes up around 11:30pm, meaning that after that you need to find your own way home on a night out, something that is not always easy with taxis turning off their lights. 

“I logged onto the FreeNow taxi app one night around 12am while standing outside a night club and there was 0 taxis on it – the app had been turned off and I had to ring my dad to come in from Dun Laoghaire to get me because I had no other way home because public transport had finished,” Lisa James says.