Our capital is one of the great small cities of Europe.
Dozens of international studies reveal it to be relatively peaceful and safe; outward-looking yet proud of its rich history; home to well-educated and strikingly happy people.
We should be proud of these facts. Dublin is, after all, our capital.
Yet the anti-Dublin brigade, those who try to convince us that the city is full, or that it’s unworthy of the State it represents, have never been more vocal or more visible. Some of them live in leafy suburbs; others claim to speak for disenfranchised communities and plaster Tricolours on lamp-posts.
What they share is a determination to see the bad in everything. Why build bridges when it’s much more tweetable to knock them down?
The Tricolour planting is a phenomenon that started in the north inner city, spurred on by groups of online malcontents, and has now spread far beyond Dublin.
This is not civic pride.
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