Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Dún Laoghaire. Most anglicised town in Ireland?
Is Dún Laoghaire, or Kingstown as it evidently still is to the local establishment, not just the most horridly anglicised town in Ireland, the entire island? It is eternally shocking, every evening I walk through the town on my way to the pier. York Road; George's Street; Carlisle Pier; Kingston Hotel; Royal Marine Hotel; Royal National Lifeboat Institute; Royal St. George Yacht Club- not forgetting the newly-rebuilt monument to a British monarch that cost €500,000. The list is endless. Meanwhile, the entire history of Dún Laoghaire before 1821 seems to have been forgotten in this royalist cult. So, what revisionist agenda is in place in Dún Laoghaire that my Irish tradition and my Irish culture is all but ignored in modern-day Dún Laoghaire? And do these defenders of what is effectively royalist Dún Laoghaire in 2007 think they are being "open-minded" when they are simply ignoring all traditions in Dún Laoghaire except the (much newer) royalist one? That, of course, is really what they mean by "open-minded". And make no mistake about it. One last thing: the governing authorities of Dún Laoghaire really believe they are intellectually capable of holding a 'Festival of World Cultures'?
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