I did a day-trip to Dublin yesterday, and checked out the delights of the new Luas line. From Connolly Railway Station you can travel in style, cutting across O’Connell Street. If you want to get to Grafton Street you have to then take a connection to either Trinity College or Stephen’s Green. I’m not sure how travel in Dublin is for a motorist, but it’s a delight for a tram traveller.
On the Connolly – O’Connell Street – Abbey Street route, we asked a young guy sitting opposite where exactly we’d get our connection to Stephen’s Green but he wasn’t sure.. His lack of Luas information shrank to nothing when he looked at me carefully and said “I like your articles”. He may have said “I read your articles|” but I prefer to think he said “I like your articles”. Kevin was (still is, in fact) his name, and it struck me as he spoke how poised and pleasant young people are, on both sides of the border. AND I was reminded yet again of the power of social media. Here was this young guy in Dublin that I’d no idea existed reading my words and assessing them. Under the weary weight of the Sindo ranters, it’s easy to forget there are a lot of Kevins south of the border, quietly searching out other views on social media and then making up their minds.
So next time you’re tempted to say “Southerners have abandoned us” or “Southerners are fed an anti-Shinner diet of Sindo diatribes”, think again. Because my guess is there are a lot of young Kevins out there who by-pass the polluted mainstream and seek out other sources before doing their own thinking.
So thank you, Kevin. For me the new Luas line has justified its existence.
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