St. Stephen's Green

One excellent surprise about Dublin is that many of the "must see" sites in the guidebooks are living parts of our city, not just museum pieces crawling with posers catering to some Tourist Industry. A good "for instance" is a park called St Stephen's Green, a leisurely stroll down Grafton Street from Trinity College.

I cut through the Green every day on my way home. Dozens of Dubliners are always coming and going, passing through, often taking a break for a minute on a bench. The landscaping here is excellent. The Greenskeepers' house is in one corner, by some trees. It's the Greenskeeper's House and whoever is the Greenskeeper gets to live there, just like the President lives in the White House in Washington. I've never seen him but his results are well worth a stop and smell. There are paths, trees, gardens, a lake with bridges, benches, fountains, lampposts, gates and walls, pigeons, and grass. The grass is maintained like a golf green. Good place to crash out for a bit, maybe enjoy a Moro Bar, tear bits from a Vienna Roll that's gone stale and feed the ducks. Also a good place to relax after the crowd, bags, and bustle of the shopping in the St. Stephen's Green Center, an airy three-story shopping mall adjascent.

Passing through or stopping, there are always couples, crowds, or individuals relaxing on the grass. Some of them look like bums and some like bohemians. Others are on lunch break. Others are tourists, and that's fine. Everyone is welcome.

One time this heavyset unshaven bloke with his foot in a cast tried to interest me in buying some poiteen, there. Poiteen is Irish moonshine. I wasn't interested. He wasn't offended.

The Green empties as dusk deepens. They close the gates and everyone clears out.

- Added to the DFA Guide, July 1998.

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