FOR YEARS NOW, public debates have been waged on the topic of Dublin’s safety. These conversations have been muddied by the introduction of misinformation, as well as inaccurate surveys of dubious origin, which have added fuel to the fire of the public’s fear.

Social media has served as a Dublin Portal of sorts, connecting people’s homes to clips of the city’s worst moments. Videos that evoke outrage, disgust and despair are algorithmically propelled to the social media feeds of people who are conveniently insulated from any kind of counter-narrative.

Uneventful scenes don’t go viral, as they don’t evoke the strong emotions that compel people to like or share a video. So, as short-form video has become increasingly popular in the wake of the pandemic, people’s perception of Dublin has been on a steady downward spiral.

If you take a walk around Dublin, you’ll see that the city has changed quite dramatically in the last three decades. Speciality coffee shops punctuate a cityscape that is framed by newly built bike lanes and freshly pedestrianised streets. Our restaurants have never been better.

People line up at Dublin’s trendy slice shops like they’ve never tried pizza in their lives.

Electric buses creep through the city with eerie quiet, and their passengers aren’t even allowed to smoke on board anymore.

The city is vastly different now than it was in my childhood.

That’s not to say we don’t still have a lot to improve on, but the idea of Dublin as a lawless warzone seems fairly incongruous with the willingness of its inhabitants to dine........

© TheJournal