Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE CENTRE OF the capital – for many Dubliners – is not somewhere they’d choose to spend their St Patrick’s Day.
Reports of arrests for public disorder, assaults and other major and minor offences often generate headlines for days, after the 17th itself.
Last year, as you may recall, video footage of a man being kicked in the head in the centre of town created a media storm – and a number of teenagers were detained. Back in 2011 – fifteen teens under the legal drinking age were arrested in just one area of south Dublin.
TheJournal.ie dropped by the always-busy St Stephen’s Green rank in the middle of the afternoon last Tuesday, to see what the city’s taxi drivers made of the whole occasion.
Would they be back behind the wheel next Tuesday afternoon? Or had they decided to forgo the potential earnings boost?
Paddy’s Day – typically – is one of the most lucrative times of the year for taxis in the city.
Several drivers, however, had serious misgivings about working it….
‘Troublesome’
“I generally do work it but it is a troublesome day there’s no doubt about it,” veteran taxi-man Noel Dolan says – before proceeding to tell a story about “worst year” he had, on St Patrick’s day duty.
“It was about three or four years ago.
I came out to work when I thought the parade would be kind of over – about half two or three-ish – and picked up my first fare on the quays, on Bachelor’s Walk.
“A guy, an English visitor, wanted to go out to his hotel in Clondalkin.
I only got to the other side of the quays, when he puked up on me, and all over the car.
It was (if you’re not quite getting the picture) a “serious, serious heave,” Dolan says.
“It was just a question of getting him out of the car and me going home. I didn’t get any jobs that day. I had to go home.”
Such cases are “part and parcel of the game”.
But you don’t expect it that early in the day.
“The soiling charge now is €140 – but most times you’ve very little chance of picking that up. You try and get it back the next day.”
However, Dolan says he will be hitting the streets as usual on Tuesday next – “in the afternoon, when the parade is over”.
Ahead of him in the queue, Frank Phelan – who has 35 years on the clock as a cab driver – says he hasn’t been out on St Patrick’s Day since the early days of the Celtic Tiger. “Ten or twelve years at least”.
I haven’t worked it for years. And I believe from some of the lads that do work it that it hasn’t changed much – in fact, if anything it’s gotten more and more ridiculous.
The day he decided to throw in the towel “somebody got in the car at 2′clock and they were mouldy. Mouldy.”
“I said that’s it, I’m going home. If it’s that bad this early – I’ve had enough of this.
Now… I don’t come out at all.
‘Messy’
Out cleaning his windscreen, Tony Dalton says he’ll probably be out working – but might head home a little earlier than usual.
St Patricks Night, I would generally work until 7 o’clock. Sometimes, it depends. I’ll get a feel for the day depending on how bad it looks.
“But it does get messy.
Usually it gets messy at around half six or seven – or maybe a bit before it.
Earlier on, people might have “had a few” but are in good form. “Not too messy”.
“But yeah, I’ve certainly had a couple of passengers that you would certainly wonder how they would survive the rest of the day. They’d be heading into town maybe – and they’d already had quite a few.
I’ve had one or two that have been drunk before the parade is even finished.
On the other hand, he points out – March 17 can be one “one of the busiest days of the year”.
“It is lucrative. You’d be going all day.”
Finally, another full-time driver “probably won’t” be out looking for fares next week.
“I don’t think I’ve worked it for the last few years,” Patrick McGinley says, with a shake of the head.
“Too messy. Too messy.”
The big thing is too many young kids bombed out of their tree. And I mean young kids – fourteen to sixteen.
“You can see them walking around with the blue bags you know exactly what’s in it – and that’s from early in the day.
So was there one particular incident that made him think ‘no, I’ve had enough?’
“Well… I saw a gang of youngfellas – over on the corner here – latch on to another young fella, and kick the crap out of him.”
This was in the middle of the afternoon – while it was still bright anyway. It wasn’t late at night or anything like that.
On tenderhooks
When he did work, he was often ”on tenderhooks” waiting for people to throw-up in the cab.
I find it’s an aggressive day. Particularly in speech, but sometimes the speech converts into physical stuff.
While there’s plenty of money on offer for those willing to work, “it’s a frightening day, and I just don’t want to work it”.
Young people in particular are out drinking from early in the afternoon. “You don’t see that many from 30 or 40 up, bombed out of their tree. The odd one.”
“It’s a culture really among young people.
“I was actually talking to someone about it this morning – a lady, and she’s actually afraid to come into town on Paddy’s Day. She’d love to come into the parade and all that, but she hasn’t done so for about 20 years.
While he worked on the day around 20 years ago, “you start thinking ‘is it worth it?’”.
All it takes is one guy to puke in the car and whatever you’re going to make on the day is well gone.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
How about an irish minister for corruption
@Stephen Kennedy:
Michael Lowry?
@Stephen Kennedy: Mick Wallace?
@Stephen Kennedy: would most likely be installed or captured by the elites within a week
@FrankDapavia: he would be a front runner for the job would Lowry but he has lots of competition
@William Bright: Mick wallace never took brown envelopes? he fights the good fight. he’s not part of that insider FF/FG lot!!
@Stephen Kennedy: Their is a hole opposition for that. How about a minister for the environment, too radical?
Mass migration divides and destroys traditional communities leaving lots of natives isolated and alone as their own neighbourhoods are transformed.
@William Bright: Most of us live in a country famed for mass emigration – am I to understand you feel Irish people flocking to and taking over boroughs of London or New York or Boston would be to blame for members of those original communities feeling isolated and alone as a result?
@Ciaran Ó Fallúin: perhaps that argument could be made certainly although Irish people and American people have far more in common culutrally and linguistically so it would not have as drastic an effect.
@William Bright: you have a one track mind. What about the massive problem in Ireland of rural isolation? Lonlieness is not a modern problem it’s been around forever and fair play to the brits for this initiative.
@Dermot Lane: this article is not about isolation in rural Ireland. The situations and causes of loneliness are very different in British society and directly related to the massive inward migration they’ve suffered.
@William Bright: Mass migration divides and destroys traditional communities”
USA should be doomed centuries ago…
@William: Very true. I witnessed that for myself in the last years of my mother’s life over there. All her immediate neighbours died off and were replaced by an incoming culture that doesn’t do integration, or even want to speak the language. It was pretty sad.
@William Bright: I’m Irish. I spent 12 years living in Dublin, if I’m brutally honest, I didn’t get a chance to get to know my neighbours. Looking back, I could say a lot of them may have been lonely and I probably didn’t get involved in so much as I possibly could. Was it my culture? Was it a linguistic barrier? …Am I Muslim and I’ve just not known up to now or am I misinterpreting your point?
Go away out of it with your nonsense! Society is changing with or without migration. Half the elderly folks I know would rather spend an hour moaning on facebook than chatting with the youth of today. The half that want to chat, just like the generations before them, can’t really find anyone to talk to and are lonely. This article isn’t anything new other than perhaps a step forward from society recognising the importance of helping the lonely and trying to establish how big the problem is and what measures help.
Or maybe I’m wrong and you’re right and “mass migration” is to blame!
@Ciaran Ó Fallúin: Sometimes the lonely need to talk before being able to listen to what someone else has to say. This could also be because their hearing is awful and they are embarrassed to admit it. Best solution keep trying.
@William Bright: The minute you resorted to name-calling, you lost your argument.
@William Bright: With rising rents and life changes and college, like most, I lived in 7 or 8 places over the 12 years, so getting to know anyone that well in a maximum of 2 years isn’t easy.
I’d love to argue the true likely sources and solutions to loneliness with you further but I’m not sure if you’re committed to getting to the bottom of things.
@William Bright: Do not blame mass migration. If traditions (especially Catholic traditions) were truly strong in Ireland, then nothing would be a threat. The issue behind this is growing secularism and not migration. When you have secularism, it becomes easy for other religions to influence.
@William Bright:
If you are truly Irish, and you want Ireland to be traditional, you would be Catholic. And if you are Catholic, you should understand that something unites Ireland and certain other countries – Christianity. If Christianity was strong enough, then people of other religions would look to up us. They don’t, because we are not strong enough due to widespread secularism everywhere in the west.
Nothing to do with the divided society created by heartless Tory economic policy I suppose.
Fine Gael are implementing similar policies here. Leo’s probably lining up Frances Fitzgerald as we speak.
@FrankDapavia: No nothing todo with political parties in either country.
People caring less for others and more about themselves maybe or less time for others.
A solution might be to say hello more and pop into see an older relation or neighbour.
If you can do this there is no need for a minister for lonely people….. and not just older people.
@Gillian Scully:
Sound advice there Gillian. Neo liberal capitalism results in a dog eat dog society where social infrastructure upon which older people are so reliant is privatised out and community spirit is broken apart.
@Gillian Scully: Gotta say tho… there are a lot of people who do make efforts already. The rise in poverty has also brought a rise in the number of people volunteering to help out. Some people work tirelessly to try and quell the damage. Granted, that’s always been the way but I think some of the millennials that get so much stick for many things deserve a particular nod in that regard. I think mindfulness of this kind of thing is on the increase. The trouble is, so is extremism in all forms.
Fair idea, but loneliness has its origins in the industrial revolution and the individualism that ensued. Family members and old friends taking off in different directions for their personal pursuit of happiness. But often because they have little choice and simply have to make a living. So sure, patch the symptoms of the disease, but its causes will need to be recognized.
@Mick Tobin: There is certainly something in what you say.
Tracy grouch?
What a name!I’m depressed already.
@gerry fallon:
Not to worry you can always contact the minister for hugs and kisses at the department of cheer the fcuk up.
@Tweed Cap: or the minister for “get your bleeding act together!
@gerry fallon: except that’s not her name
@Dermot Lane: Doh, really Dermot?
Did you not get the joke or are you another one of these boring tools that troll on the journal?
Get a life.
Fine Gael have a minister that causes loneliness more or less the same thing none of them do anything.
Lonliness is a product of neo liberal economics and cultural marxist. Less social solidarity and fewer services.
@Al Coholic: no one was lonely or depressed in East Germany thank God for the Stasi
@Fergus Sheahan: not seeing the relevance of your reply. You might grace me with an explanation.
Loneliness is a series problem and one created to a large extent from the rigid social structures we have adopted where we have the single family unit as the foundation for everything. In our modern society, where neighbours are strangers, relatives are spread across the country or even the world, it is so easy to become isolated, particularly when the single person who you relied on as your sole partner, dies. We should look at more communal arrangements and greater sharing opportunities. Something like hippy communes for the middle-aged. Just a thought!
For most visitors and emigrant workers England Is London. They can’t/wouldn’t get to see Newcastle-Upon-Tyne any more than they’d get to see and enjoy the far reaches of Cornwall. London was a lonely concrete jungle in the late 1970s. There will be even more (lonely) people by now. Liam Neeson was interviewed yesterday about his role in “The Commuter.” He described when you start to see “familiar faces” in the tube or on the train…and you might (just) nod or smile. Really…Hardly. I sometimes think Londoners wear their standoffishness like a bizarre badge of honour. Like we/they are in the trenches – still in the war. Unless of course there is a terrorist attack – or a towering inferno. Then, and only then may they come together. Go to a northern town, there you’ll witness real warmth..
@Paul Jennings: or should that read “London is England?” Minister for Loneliness. I’d rather fancy my chances as Minister for Suicide/Mental illness/Human Chaos and Dysfunction. Does the position come with a generous benefits and sick leave package? She’ll need it…
@Paul Jennings: Careful there Paul. Gawking at the non-locals with their horseless carriages and magic hand boxes isn’t the same as ‘warmth’.
I live in a rural area where there is a very good awareness of the needs of the elderly. We have in the general area two day care centers where people can go to socialize and have a midday meal , transport is provided to pick them up at their own home ,Also meals on wheels are delivered to their homes if required. Sheltered Housing is also available at the Centres.
Several Parish Halls and Community Centres run Bingo and Card Games which are very popular. Also the GAA play a huge role in the community far beyond sport.
Christmas Parties for Senior Citizens are held every year in every Parish.
Another initiative is the Rural Bus which enables non drivers to go to town to shop each week.
Most of these services are run by volunteers .
I moved from a large city to rural life. I find community spirit and support is alive and well there.
That’s sad
Party at Tracey House !!!!….
It really is a poor show on modernity when the people expect the government to look after every aspect of their lives.
That will be a quiet job!
Nothing to be said about Tory neo-liberalism policies causing loneliness in the first place? Let’s see how in-effective this minister is.
““the sad reality of modern life””
You couldn’t make this sh**t up. Can’t they just get a cat?
@Rear Admiral: The new minister will supply government issue cats to all lonely people.
16TH OF march 2018, And i saw a marvelous testimony of this powerful and great spell caster called Dr, Mataji on the forum and i read how he help a woman with her marriage been restored..I never believed it, because i never heard of anything about magic before.. Not a soul would have been able to influence me about magical spells, not until Dr Mataji did it for me and restored my marriage of 6 years back to me and brought my spouse back to me in the same month just as i read on the Internet..i was truly astonished and shocked when my husband kneel down begging for forgiveness and for me to accept him back.. I am really short of expressions, and i don’t know how much to convey my appreciation to you Dr Mataji you are a God sent to me and my entire family.. And now i am a joyful woman once again..and i feel people we be out there passing the same problem i pass through here is his email address in case you need him; matajispellhome@gmail.com, and website http://matajispellhome.webs.com OR call him directly on his phone number +2348165784423,+13202044394…
Just the one?
have your say