EoinN

I myself am not an architect, nor from Dublin ( I’m a culchie) , but:
Check out – if you are registered – the Irish Times feedback forum from a few days ago. The vote was 50/50 in favor of the Spire and the comments were even more skewed in favor – the most orthodox ( What about the homeless? ) comments being the least articulate.

As an aside : I traveled on 2 bus tours in cities last year : one in New York , the other in Dublin.

The Dublin tour-guide was full of disgust for anything that was built by the Irish since independence. He was full of self demeaning anti-Irish remarks ( i.e. “pubs and Churches – Sums us up doesn’t it!”) and loved only the architecture built by the British or Norman.

The New Yorker was full of verve , joy and love of his home town and discussed animatedly the plans for the World Trade center site. He was, if anything, more working class than the Irish guy ( I detected a D4 accent there).

It is pretty remarkable what little culture we have produced as a nation since independence. And so little pride. Of course we have produced some literary culture – but that can’t be considered the culture of the State, or people : it is private culture ( I can imagine some witless luvvie stumbling upon James Joyce though, and asking him if he was going to continue work on that incomprehensible book or go help the homeless. [shrill voice] “What use is your book. What does it do?!!!”).

Architecture is primarily – these days – the art of the State, or mostly sanctioned by the State, and thus is the real expression of the people in a democracy, and we have produced so little of it.

This despite the fact that Dublin/Ireland is one of the richest places per capita in the world : and thus in the history of the world. Look at what (a much poorer) Athens produced in its heyday.

All rich cultures and generations leave something behind. Some art. Even tribal societies. We leave behind semi-detached houses stretching to infinity.
Sums us up, doesn’t it?

As an aside: tourists visit places for architecture, climate, situation and culture , among others, and not because of the absence of homeless people. San Francisco has more homeless than Fargo, for instance; And many more tourists.
Further, the city spent $400 million on homeless people this last year. The transient population trends at about 4,000 at any one time; so that is $100,000 each.

Lots more expensive than the spire: and didn’t solve the problem.