On Sunday, a quiet sadness still hangs over my beautiful, great, adopted city

I AM taking the opportunity to write this in what I call a UPW, or ‘unexpected parental window’, which has seen me arriving in Dublin city centre on a Sunday morning to deliver my son to a birthday party.

I just found out the party will be on for two-and-a-half hours which gives me a glorious window to potter around Tower Records marvelling at the price of vinyl, before grabbing a bento box in one of my favourite Japanese restaurants on George’s Street. I even get to catch up on a bit of work! T

he city bears no resemblance to the place we saw streamed all over the world last Thursday night, with the horrendous attack on innocent lives followed by the depressing far-right aftermath – with buses and trams on fire, gardaí being hunted through the streets like dogs and the sight of masked thugs looting and destroying everything in sight. It was the darkest day in the capital since I moved here, over 20 years ago.

A quiet sadness hangs in the air this morning but I am also reminded of what a great city this is and why I love it.

In fact, Sunday morning in Dublin feels like you are visiting a fancy Scandinavian town, with shops open for Christmas, hipsters huddled around artisan coffees worrying about their rent – just a very gentle and civilised vibe. I love the abundant choice, the anonymity amongst so many colourful and diverse people, and the feeling of quiet safety. Of course, I saw all this from a position of extreme privilege and you need a lot of money and a lot of luck to be able to enjoy the city on its own terms, these days.

This is one of many reasons why there is a significant minority who don’t feel the benefits of this picture I’m painting, who can’t afford to spend 30 quid on a designer candle, or €20 on brunch, and who are coming from areas of the city devastated by generational trauma caused by addiction, crime and marginalisation. And a lot of these kids have now been whipped into a frenzy by some seriously bad actors on social media.

Far-right nut jobs, nihilists filled with hate, not to mention massively influential martial artists who need to be dealt with. And now our failure to address or curtail this growing unease is being beamed into houses worldwide. What a shame.

That’s not to say that the rioters bear no responsibility and that all the arms of the State shouldn’t react with appropriate force. Like everyone else, my kneejerk reaction on Thursday was shock and deep anger. My default kneejerk in these cases is to wish the gardaí had more confidence to go in, batons aloft, and teach them all a lesson. And the softly-softly approach is clearly not working.

Displays of hooliganism like this need to be met headon, and our Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner need to get real and address this.

But we all know deep down, that a deeper problem needs to be addressed. Baton-charging kids and locking them up won’t solve the deeper malaise. We need to look to the better angels of our nature and find ways to bring these communities back into the fold, while sending a clear message that this sort of criminality will be stamped down without prejudice. And we need to target the orchestrators and do whatever it takes to minimise their ability to do the same again.

We also need to recognise that multiculturalism and immigration are tricky to manage, especially in the middle of a housing and cost-of-living crisis. We need to be honest about the fact that a lot of these new immigrants are competing with some of our poorest communities for housing and work, creating a breeding ground for extremist politics. This will require management, empathy, and most of all, unity in our approach.

Paddy’s big night in

WELL, Paddy Kielty made another huge step towards cementing his place as Late Late Show host last week with his very accomplished performance in his first Toy Show. I wish this had received some of the international coverage that the riots did, being such a celebration of all that is good about our little island. The ratings superseded Tubridy’s last outing which must be sweet for the production team and for Kielty himself, who took a much gentler approach to the show, allowing the kids time and space to shine. My own kids loved it because he wasn’t making so many jokes that were going over their heads – a sage and empathetic move pitched straight at the audience for which it was intended. I am biased, of course, given the star of our company’s new animated kids TV show, Bonnie, made an appearance and got to plug our upcoming series. This was all of her own doing, though, and we were very proud of her brilliant performance.

Say cheese in Charlie’s!

DID ye all see the internet advert for Charlie’s Bar in Enniskillen? A tear-jerking Christmas advert for the pub has amassed almost eight million views on Twitter. The video shows an old man visiting a grave with flowers, then being ignored on the main street by passers-by and looking very down in the dumps. When he arrives at Charlie’s Bar, things take a turn – he’s given a pint of Guinness by the fire and immediately makes new friends in the form of a young couple with their dog. It’s cheesy, badly made and absolutely gorgeous. John Lewis, eat your heart out.