Cow Parade
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There is also one in the Abbey foyer. It should be safe there. I doubt if the ‘yobs’ know of the theatre’s existance.
And the National Gallery herd have it too easy as well, experiencing nothing but upper middle class gentility and adoring American tourists, a short stroll over to the Rutland Fountain – and then safely locked up every evening, personal security staff, sweet green grass to enjoy – upon which not one foot has ever stepped, and the distinguished Dargan to watch over them all.
Ah yes, some just don’t appreciate what they have in life.In ‘Vandals spell end of Belgian street art’, Expatica News reported yesterday that “a street show of fibre glass cow sculptures in Brussels was partially decimated just hours after the 187 ‘Art on Cows’ exhibits were set up in the city’s parks and squares.” http://www.expatica.com/belgium.asp?pad=88,89,&item_id=33499
It’ interesting to read the impassioned correspondence regarding the vandalism of fiberglass cows, whether from the knee jerk “it’s society’s fault” on the left to the “let’s have a brazilian solution to an irish problem” on the right. In some ways, it’s heartening that people care so much, in other ways it seems to be a manifestation of the national pastime of navel gazing. As an expat, I am always a little stretched when I return to Dublin and have to explain to my small children why someone might smash a bus shelter or leave rubbish on the street. It is truly one of the dirtiest and bedraggled first world capitals I have ever been to, even with the extraordinary architectural and civic progress of the past ten years.
It has always been claimed that the Irish have never had a history of cities or urban areas – and hence simply don’t have a sense of civic pride or an appreciation of what can be achieved with so many people and so much wealth concentrated in such areas – something that I think has more than a grain of truth.
And nowhere is this more evident in Dublin, nearly all of it’s inhabitants seem to belive that we have just ‘inherited’ this Georgian(ish) city, rather than see it as a place that was built by Irish people to be used by mostly Irish people, and has been treated with distain at best and utter contempt at worst as a result.Not that this has anything to do with louts smashing things up today – they’re not exactly loitering around Merrion Square lobbing rocks through windows screaming ‘bloody Brits!’ ‘you and your pretentious Georgiana!’
They just do it because they couldn’t care about anything.
Dubliners may have got the Merrion Square lobbing of bricks and derogatory observations in the direction of brits out of their system when the british embassy was deconstructed after Bloody Sunday.
I suppose there is a grain of truth in the cliche about not having any purely indiginous urban history, but the same could be said about every other post colonial society that do not seem to treat their cities as poorly as the Irish. Actually, it seems our attitude is more like that of the old enemy than we might like to admit. Many UK cities have the same scruffy air of wilful neglect festooned with the debris of alcohol enhanced rampages by the weekend warrior classes.
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