The Death of Dublin's Moore Street

When I lived in Ireland, before the Celtic economy began to boom, one of my favorite sites in Dublin was Moore Street.  Located just west of O'Connell Street (the city’s main thoroughfare) Moore Street was a time machine back to the days of Dickens (had Dickens been Irish).  This is where the Irish poor came to sell their eggs and Bic lighters and where dirty faced street urchins would cry out “three for a pound!” and other deals and bargains to be had. 

All of this had changed, however, when I revisited Ireland last May.  The Irish economy, once the laughingstock of Europe, is now pulling strong and the effect on Moore Street is substantial.  The Oliver Twists and curmudgeon farmers are gone, replaced by Asians, East Europeans, and Africans who have transformed the area into a multicultural hodgepodge the likes of which lily-white Ireland has never seen before. 

Economic prosperity has always been a magnet for economic refugees and Ireland, it seems, is no exception.  While I have to admit I selfishly miss the quaint Victorian poverty of Moore Street, I’m happy for Ireland’s success and, of course, the cultural diversity and better food options the country’s new immigrants have brought to Dublin. 

Filed under: Ireland