In a letter to the newspaper from Karl, he provides a report on his opinion of Dublin in 1901: “The Dublin people compare with those of Belfast, as the Edinburgh people with Glasgow, not taken up so much with business, but rather included to be reserved and stylish, giving more of their attention to sports, than their neighbours in the cities of shipbuilding fame. Dublin is a fine-looking city. Sackville Street is about as fine a thoroughfare as one would see anywhere, and the city has its share of squares and parks.”
Karl’s impression of Dublin and direct comparison to Belfast speaks of quite a different time, and 120 years later, I would suggest a direct comparison is no longer very relevant. I’m also sure that the people of Edinburgh and Glasgow would agree!
In 1901, there may have been rumblings of a desire in Ireland for independence from Great Britain; the Emerald Isle was not partitioned. During Karl’s visit, the statistics show that both Dublin and Belfast — cities in the same country — had similar-sized populations of about 350,000 people. Today, Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, with a population of 600,000, and Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland, with a population of 1.1 million.
Karl would have been living back in Canada when the Easter Rising took place in April 1916, leading to the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) between British forces and the Irish Republican Army. During my time in Dublin, I went on a “1916 Rebellion walking tour” to glean a better perspective of those years that led to independence. On tour, we walked to O’Connell Street and stood before a statue to commemorate Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), a nationalist leader who believed in peaceful tactics to achieve change. The monument is known as the “Great Liberator,” and Daniel is at the top.
At the base of the O’Connell monument are four archangels, each representing a virtue of Daniel: courage, eloquence, fidelity and patriotism, and also representing each of the four provinces of Ireland. Marked by the history of the 1916 Easter Rising, there are bullet holes in the arms of the statue of O’Connell and three of the archangels.
But if it weren’t for the tour guide pointing the evidence from the rebellion, I likely would not have noticed, as Dublin is less of a walk through history as it is a walk to the future. It’s a vibrant, energetic, creative city that is said to have literature in its blood. Dublin is now the fourth UNESCO City of Literature with four Nobel prize winners and other literary awards that foster and celebrate the written word. With so much to see and do in what Karl described as a “fine-looking city”, the “hop-on, hop-off” sightseeing bus was the starting point for me. With over 30 points of interest, the route takes a mere 90 minutes to plan out those places where you want to take a closer look — Trinity College, Guinness Storehouse, Jameson Distillery, Temple Bar, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I wanted to see it all!
And so, it may have been appropriate in 1901 for Karl to compare Dublin to Belfast: two cities in the same country with similar populations. Today, it would be my opinion that we shouldn’t compare these cities. That’s not to say one is better than the other. Today Dublin and Belfast are the capital cities of two different countries that have had a troublesome history, with a lot of lives lost to garner that distinction. Instead of comparing the two, I would suggest that like me and Karl, you simply experience them both.
But, as for Karl’s remarks that the people of Edinburgh can be compared to the people of Glasgow – that, Dear reader, remains to be seen until we have our adventure in Scotland!