"The tart with the cart"

Yes, tis meself , with the infamous prostitute and fish monger Molly Malone. The Swede cut off the top of her head, all his attemts at photography have sucked, but the tasty bits are there. I was going to have my photo taken with him and his girl, who's name is unpronouncable, let alone unspellable, for me, but it totally slipped our minds. Now, they are off to Romania and God only knows why!

I’ve an hour before my train leaves for the north and Belfast City, so I thought I’d post a another picture or two and pass on some observations ’n such. I may not be totally accurate about some of my observations, statistically or otherwise; but I am open for debate or critsizmn when I get home.

There’s always music playing at these Internet Cafés, which by the way are on every street it seems, and for some reason the girl running this one has chosen to play Patsy Cline; fine with me.

Dublin’s countryside is beautiful and, for the most part, pristine. They are only a few years into a transition; moving away from their status as an agro economy. During my trip out to Wicklow, the hills of Glenacree, Enniskerry,Glendalough and Avoca yesterday, we encountered very few cars; very few, even for a weekday I thought to myself. Then Sean, the driver, told us that, "for some strange reason, people just tend to stay in the city all of the time."

Dwellings and other types of buildings in Dublin City, that couldn’t be given away at 100 – 150 Euro in 1995, are now selling for 5 million.

The law in Dublin is: “You cannot build up. No tall buildings” They want to keep the City quaint and allow the sunlight to get down in and around to warm all buildings, the streets; and to let the sunshine lighten the hearts of the populace. Hence, if you cannot build up, then you must build out, and I saw evidence of this in the countryside. Not only are private homes going up in Dublin’s suburbs, but “Counsel Houses” as well; these are homes for the working class and for some of those who’ve retired. How much more and how quickly the Dublin area will grow and spred is uncertain, it seems boundless in the present economy! However, I feel that Dublin and Ireland it as a nation will be very prudent about how and where they build.

Right now, and for the first time since the potato blight of the 1800s, and the effect that millions of deaths from starvation and disease, as well as mass immigration had on its population, the population of Ireland has risen past the 1.4 million mark. Many people are repatriating, and many people from other European countries are coming here to live and work as well. There is 100% employment in Ireland; that is, anyone who wants to work, foreign or national, is "guaranteed" a job. Those “citizens” who can’t work are taken care of, for the most part. 200 untaxed Euro, soon to be increased by one third, is guaranteed to every retiree and those who cannot work. The tax rate overall is 12%.

Still, there are those who fall through the cracks. One of these groups is the, much maligned, gypsies who, at present, number about 30.000. You can see their campers and tents set up on various sites outside Dublin. They tell me a solution is being sought; Ireland is in the midst of elections right now and both major parties promise this "solution".

Ireland is progressive, and they seemed to have learned from some of the environmental and economic blunders made by other countries and governments. They are experimenting heavily with alternative sources of energy, including wind farms, and wave motion generators on the coasts; the people have rejected a nuclear solution each time it’s been suggested. Much of their energy still comes from burning peat, believe it or not, which is plentiful in various regions of the country.

All of the major computer companies have set up shop here, including Microsoft. |Dell computer has a huge plant right outside of Dublin City, which boasts close by housing supplied for the workers; it seems to me that that experiment, “workers living and working together.” was tried in Europe once before and ultimately failed.

Having discovered some of these things about Dublin and the country in general, I’m very curious now to see how things are up north, where I’m told things are moving ahead, “progressing”, but at a slower rate. I will post from Belfast, before I hope a ferry to Scotland. Gotta get out of here, people are arriving in droves.