lyndon nixon ([email protected])
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 02:12:41 -0800 (PST)
i'm not going to drag myself into this latest pithy debate (too much).
i mean, i am well used already to people associating Belfast with
nothing but the troubles, and the lesson is really not to shoot your
mouth off too much about other places until you know them. I'm glad to
say that I've had friends from America and elsewhere come visit, and
they have discovered that Belfast is a far nicer safer friendlier
place than your news channel would have you believe.
i'm not disagreeing at all that most people associate Dublin with U2,
especially Americans (although I'd say their fascination comes more
from the constant preoccupation with having had an irish relative five
generations back.), when Dublin lacks any other OBVIOUS landmark. On
the other hand, I hope Wirelings, who often express an obsession with
the place (U2s city ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod etc.) will also take the
opportunity to enlighten themselves more about the wider historical
and social aspects of the place so not to piss off the locals (a
peculiar skill of Americans I have found)
personally I associate Dublin more with Guinness and going out. and
when I asked my well travelled friend (with whom I toured the States
for 5 months last year) what he thought of first when I said Chicago,
it was the Sears Tower. Then again I dont think you can expect
Europeans to say anything else as most of us really dont give a stuff
about the NBA. Maybe a similar opposite effect exists with Dublin: u2
is the only Dublin export America has ever really taken an interest in.
I dont think we need to slag one another off overhead this, just heed
the lessons to be learnt. Please don't trivialise Dublin down to
u2-city and nothing else. And maybe in return we Irish will try to
appreciate the American perspective on things a bit better :-)
zeek.
==
Yahoo ID: zeekthegeek ICQ# 5894585 webpage coming this month
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Tue Jan 19 1999 - 02:15:51 PST