Dirty Ol' Town

Some friends of mine are visiting Dublin and asked for advice on what to see. They are interested in seeing multi-ethnic drag shows, nude cage fighting, improv poetry slams and interpretive dance done by choir boys. They are too shy to ask me where they can enjoy their eclectic tastes in Dublin, and instead purported to be interested in historical landmarks, particularly from the Victorian and Georgian periods.

I compiled a list of interesting places they could visit in Dublin when they weren't taking in the drag shows, and included the following caveat:

"There are areas of Dublin that I wouldn't go in broad daylight, much less at night. When I first moved to Dublin I didn't take the threat of getting mugged or attacked very seriously because I figured, I come from the land of the concealed weapon, what is some little 14 year old punk going to do? But the lack of personal safety in Dublin (combined with the complete intolerance for anyone who wasn't white and straight) was one of the main reasons I left. It's a very dangerous city, I felt a lot safer in Beijing, in San Jose (Costa Rica), in post-Guiliani New York, or in St Petersburg than I ever felt in Dublin. People are constantly getting mugged and robbed, especially tourists. The whole thing was can do here about putting our purses on the floor or hanging them off the side of the chair won't be ok there - you'll turn around and it will be gone. The gypsies are giving the North Dublin kids a run for their money in terms of street crime. Dubliners, especially drunks in bars and street kids, will give you shit and try to start trouble for no good reason. You guys are not from Wisconsin, so you know how to take care of yourselves, I just want to give you a heads-up that it's not all the merry fookin' leprechauns that the Irish Tourist Board would have you believe."

(No offense to people from Wisconsin, they just have the benefit of living in a state with little theft crimes.)

My friends are smart, safe people who lived in China Basin in SF and now in Manhattan, and they can take care of themselves. God only knows what kind of warning I'd be giving people who were less sophisticated. It makes me sad that I feel the need to issue warnings about the city I called home for three years. I can't think of anywhere else I've been that I'd feel I had to say that about. I felt safer when I was lost in a Beijing slum than I ever did on the O'Connell Street in the middle of Dublin. But to this day I have a moment's pause before I put my purse on the floor under my chair, and I think part of me will never shake off that heightened awareness that comes with living in a city as crime-ridden as Dublin.