Andrew Finlay Sociologist
The striking thing about double dip Dublin is how well-mannered the protests are. The only disorder I have witnessed in the 19 years I’ve been here was February 2006 when the government tried to do its bit for the peace process by having the Love Ulster parade on O’Connell Street. Then, a counter-demonstration by dissident Republicans surprised everyone by morphing into a carnival of the dispossessed. Who knows: maybe the various up and coming centenaries – 1913, 1916 etc. – will exceed the careful choreography and catalyse broader disaffection with the banks, NAMA, the politicians and the EU?
Mary Costello Author
What comes to mind is a quieter, more sombre city. The light is grey and everywhere there are half-empty buildings, warehouses, shops. And mute men in boots and heavy coats walking the streets with vaporous breaths, killing time. And when evening falls and bar doors swing open a slant of orange light falls briefly on the street, bringing a sigh and a memory of music to those passing by. Up above the rooftops and out beyond the city, beyond the Pale, lone men gaze out over lakes with mist rising, turned in on themselves. Severe. Austere. The age of austerity.
Kate O’Sullivan Project Arts Development and Communications Officer
In the future, there will be a much greater return to natural self-sustained and creative ways of living, where people look back at our overly processed and packaged present, and recoil at the environmental harm we caused without real awareness. Current schemes, such as Dublin Bikes and Urban Farm, will be lauded for their influence on city life in Dublin, and how they strengthened our pride in community, green-living and self-sufficiency.
Michelle Darmody Proprietor, Cake Cafe
I hope that in the future the care taken in preparing, growing and creating food is as important as its monetary value. It would be inspiring to see the city’s waste spaces used as allotments and community gardens with new systems and ancient methods used to grow food on our doorstep. Ireland has the ability to feed and nourish its population if we look closer to home for good, clean and fair produce.
Oisín Murphy-Hall Film Editor
With the end of history proclaimed by neoliberal capitalism (through Francis Fukuyama) some twenty years hence, a repeat without qualification of Nikita Khrushchev’s Cold War pronouncement that our grandchildren, in the West, will live under communism, may seem unnecessarily hopeful or utopian. God knows what Dublin will look like in the future, but if it is a product of further successive parasitic, plutocratic governments – and there is scant reason to believe otherwise – then any prognosis, however speculative, must surely then be a despairing one. To bridge the gap between this despair and human agency, between fear and imagination, oppression and revolution: this is the question asked of us by history. Human life, at least, persists.
Cian O’Brien Artistic Director, Project Arts Centre
For me, the future of Culture in Dublin is all about collaboration; artists, practitioners and institutions working together to create magnificent works of art which will stimulate and challenge the citizens of Dublin. I believe the future of our city is nothing without strong cultural and creative industries. Dublin will continue to be a place where the arts are at the heart of our culture, where artists play a leading role in society and every citizen has access to cultural experiences which can stir their souls and expand their minds.
Anthony Haughey Artist and Lecturer, School of Media, DIT
According to Oscar Wilde all art is quite useless. For the wealthy it is a status symbol and investment option. The potent image of NAMA seizing Andy Warhol’s ‘Dollar Sign’ painting from bankrupt property speculator Derek Quinlan says it all. In this period of prolonged recession younger artists will reject the market and adopt practices that are socially engaged, forming strategic community collaborations to inspire fellow citizens to reject pernicious neoliberal agendas of obedient consumerism. Artists will enrich culture and contribute to society by visualising alternative ways to live in a more equitable and sustainable society.
Betrayal of Penguins Comedy troupe
Giant robot chickens everywhere. Don’t be alarmed though, some of them won’t be aggressive. Most however, will. These will be introduced into the Dublin eco-system in a bid to quell the giant robotic grain problem which from 2017 onwards will become somewhat of an ironic plaque on the city. They will inevitably, on their introduction, do some good and then, quite quickly afterwards, a great deal more harm than good. Terrorizing towns, eating children, scaring the other normal sized robotic animals – these will be the reckoning Dublin had not seen coming.
Miranda Driscoll and Feargal Ward The Joinery
There is much talk about philanthropy as a future model for the arts here. This is being proposed as an alternative to government funding and is a reaction to funding cuts, but also convenient timing for government bodies who fund less art initiatives every year. There is little consideration in relation to the ‘DIY’ scene which is something that tends to thrive in times of economic depression but which often falls outside of the mainstream funding criteria. There is a misconception in Dublin that empty buildings are free to be taken over by groups of artists, this is much more difficult to secure than one might be led to believe; there is very little security for long-term tenancy. The DIY music and visual art scene in Dublin is currently very vibrant but it is not sustainable in its current state.
Anton Dogcatcher and Barfly Regular
Emigration seems to be really sorting the men from the boys. But when I play, I play for keeps – I’ll be here at least long enough to vote for the PDs again, in 2016 if not sooner. Anchorman 2’ll be a game-changer.
John Scott Choreographer/Opera Singer
In the near future, many Dubliners bodies will have darker skin and mixed skin and will walk and dance in the streets with more grace and confidence – not walk with hesitation waiting for a racist comment. Our body language will evolve, our hips sway more. People will dance to communicate and make physical contact. We will hug and help the handicapped. Global warming will mean tee shirts in December. There will be an opera house with affordable tickets, streets will be named after artists and humanitarians, some with African and Arabic names. Bewleys cherry buns will still be available.
Celestine Cooney Fashion Director, Twin Magazine
When I told a friend about this he suggested that I say all of the buildings would be painted three quarters black with white tops and that Guinness would flow like water out of all the taps, which I thought was a pretty cool suggestion. In reality I think that hard times in a country have a tendancy to nurture the creative underbelly of a capital city, often one that’s always been there bubbling away beneath the surface but at times ends up living in the shadow of economic wealth. Culturally Ireland has the Midas touch, music, fashion, art, literature, it’s all there and always has been, we have no shortage of heroes… Joyce, Beckett, Yeats, Bacon, Thin Lizzy! I see us reconnecting with our roots and the richness of our heritage and through that I believe what it truly means to be Irish will flourish again. I love the idea of these acorns being sown now and in the future Dublin will be a forest, a great big rambling, writing, pattern cutting, sometimes singing, often drinking, tin-whistle playing wood of oak trees.
Patrick Costello Social Worker
My vision for Dublin in the future is in response to a cynical view of where the world is going and coloured by my personal nightmares of global warming and peak oil! My hopeful vision for Dublin is a city built on sustainability. I hope for a city where clean effiecnt public transport alongside high quality cycling infrastructure of the centre of transport planning not a bolted on afterthought. I hope for a city where use of wind and solar and renewable energy is widespread and where rooftops covered in solar panels are seen as romantic as copper domes of the past.
Karl McDonald Deputy Editor
Prejudice in the GAA will be restricted to anti-Kerry bias, with people of all backgrounds competing for their local clubs without anybody giving them racist abuse, whether ‘lad banter’ or not. Dublin will be pushing towards the completion of a fabled triple-double in hurling and football, powered by Adebayos, Biedrzyckis, Mercados and Chens from the suburbs, giving up their spare time in pursuit of proving the ever-changing city’s eternal superiority.
Darklight Film Festival Team
Cities will replace countries as superpowers. Phones will be charged by kinetic energy. We will be chipped, have nightvision and all be bald. Everything will be wireless, even wires. Drones will track down teens who’ve missed their curfew. Dogs will drive our taxis and cats will run cafés across the city. There will be reality TV shows in space where contestants can never return to earth. The letter y will replace i due to copyryght yssues wyth Apple. E.W.S.W.B.I.A
Richie Egan Musician, Jape and the Redneck Manifesto
Music in Dublin has changed since I started, when it was a lot about fanzines and DIY gigs and it seemed like Dublin was far away from the action. Today and even moreso in the future you can see that city lines are dissolving which means that kids have instant access to what is NOW as it happens. This is good because everybody realises it’s a level playing field but bad because international youth becomes homogenised, however it will give Dublin/Irish artists confidence to compete with any other country and you’re going to see more Irish artists recognised without having to leave Ireland.
Jonah King Artist, Winner of Block T Emerging Graduate Award
I like to think (and the sooner the better!), the Dail will be emptied and turned into an extension of the National Library. Local communities will self-organise and use empty properties as vernacular cultural spaces. Churches will be repurposed as non-denominational peace sanctuaries. Every rooftop will be used to grow food. Phoenix Park will become a collective farm. We will build a giant bio-dome to protect the city from an encroaching Siberian climate. Rising tide will flood the streets and turn Dublin into something a bit like Venice. And together, hand-in-hand, we will dance naked around the Spire.
Prof. Rob Kitchin Director of NIRSA at NUI Maynooth
Dublin’s progress towards a smart city will be gradual, but over time the city’s infrastructure will be infused with and controlled through software. This will include building management, transport networks, utilities, and logistic chains. Moreover, how we understand, work, consume, and perform domestic tasks will become further mediated and augmented by software. These systems will generate vast amounts of data that will provide evidence to underpin decision and policy making. Whilst such developments raise the spectre of ‘big brother’, in the main it will lead to greater efficiencies, more productivity and competiveness, and greater safety and security.
Article appeared in the 100th issue of Totally Dublin. Special thanks to Stephen Maurice Graham for his illuminations.
How do you see the future of Dublin? Let us know in the comments below.
