We’ve always prided ourselves on being a nation famed for our warm welcome.
But you can forget about any Cead Mile Failte in good old Baile Atha Cliath these days.
Instead, there seem to be mobs loitering around the city centre, as the lockdown slowly lifts.
I’m sure most readers have seen the shocking footage of the kung fu street brawl on South William Street.
Or – even more terrifying – the young woman being pushed onto the DART line as thugs harangued passing female commuters at Howth Junction station.
Perhaps I’m being naïve, but I never would’ve believed it was possible here if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
Unfortunately, I now know in my true blue heart that it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Even more unfortunately, these images of appalling anti-social behaviour went viral on social media and have made the news in other countries.
I’ve had friends in Canada and New Zealand asking, “Is Dublin really that bad?”
We’re quickly getting the type of Bad Reputation that even Phil Lynott wouldn’t have dreamt possible in his wildest nightmares.
If Alive Alive-O today, The Rocker probably would’ve been singing about how The Yobs Are Back In Town.
I know The Pogues song was written about Liverpool, but Dublin is now the true (blue) Dirty Old Town.
I’ve one history buff friend in Madrid, who has read many books about the Famine and The Troubles and has even visited the peace lines in Belfast.
And he asked me in all earnest the other day if Glasgow was now a safer place than our Fair City?
I was stuck for words.
It’s worrisome when a potential tourist with a real gra for the Emerald Island is now hesitant about a return visit to Dublin.
He fears getting more than a Glasgow Kiss if he ran into a group of Irish teens out looking for trouble.
In most other European cities, you could simply warn somebody to stay out of certain no-go areas like, say, La Canada Real on the outskirts of Madrid.
And you should be perfectly fine if you apply common sense when roaming the streets of Rome.
Thugs don’t congregate around the main attractions in other EU cities because it’s simply not tolerated.
But you need to be more than streetwise when visiting here.
Dublin is like a hellish survival course because bored scumbags are allowed to levitate towards landmarks – almost like moths with a flamethrower, so to speak.
What’s worrying is there’s almost an Americanised style of violence becoming more and more prevalent in the gang culture here.
If we’re not careful, O’Connell St could end up like New York’s Time Square when it was a no-go area circa 1970s.
It’s hard to believe the Big Apple was once a city that tourists gave a wide berth.
But Dublin’s could end up just as rotten to the core because unfortunately history has a nasty habit of repeating itself.
The Justice Minister needs to get her act together.
There should, at the very least, be a Garda unit dedicated to a problem that’s reaching crisis levels.
While the city itself is in urgent need of more public amenities that don’t revolve around the demon drink.
As Philo sang, “That bad reputation has made you old. Turn yourself around.”
