Dublin Noises

When you live in a city long enough, it becomes like a person to you, develops a character, consisting of all those experiences and impressions that you live and absorb in it. The way it looks, the way it feels, the way it smells. And the way it sounds. A city is a noisy monster (here’s an interesting nymag.com article about the subjectivity in how we perceive (urban) noise).

So, after having shown some visual impressions of my personal Dublin, I asked  myself: what are those sounds that make Dublin? Hearing the city through the ears of a newcomer may make this task a little easier, as we get used to sounds over time, as to anything else that surrounds us.

So here’s my personal auditory Dublin portrait, consisting of little bits of noise that I recorded over the past weeks – some are ordinary and may be perceived in other cities (construction sites are everywhere but Jaysus! in Dublin they literally are everywhere), and some are quite unique, like St. Patrick’s Day on Temple Bar or that weird noise that the pedestrian crossings make here.

This is my last post, so thanks everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed it a little (I did!). Over 600 views from 18 different countries all over the world- didn’t expect that!

Why you should vote NO…. and what we can learn from Flipper

Everyday on my way to college I sit -half asleep- in the bus and stare blankly out of the window. Since a couple of weeks I am forced to read the posters that urge the Irish population to perform their duty as democrats and vote YES or NO – in favour of or against same sex marriage. The YES posters are all more or less the same and centred on EQUALITY – boring.

The NO posters however are diverse and great craic! How can such a negative campaign be fun? There we have our first common misconception: the campaign is not negative!

Because if you look closely, there is has a heart in the O… N<3. The NO campaign is actually all about love. Let’s look at some of the other posters:

“God says NO!” Plus there is a reference! No wait! Two references! Jaysus (his dad actually). Scientific argument. Both from the same book. Have you read it? It’s fantastic (literally)!

“Nature says NO!” How does nature say no? Ah I get it: same sex couples cannot procreate. That is Nature’s way of saying no to same sex sexual intercourse. Because humans only have sex to procreate. I guess we can learn a lot from Flipper.

Dolphins and humans are the …Dolphins are the only mammals that have sex for pleasure. And love Comic Sans.

Then there are lot of NO posters that have a child in them and they claim that every child deserves a mother and a father. Wait, so the Referendum is actually about adoption! That is surprising because sole applicants have been in a position to apply to assess for adoption since 1991 and that makes same sex marriage irrelevant, doesn’t it? I’m starting to be confused 😦

“We already have civil partnership. Don’t redefine marriage!” What? we don’t need to redefine marriage because we already have civil partnership? So, they’re the same? There is civil marriage, religious marriage and civil partnership. What is the vote about? Religious marriage (those posters suggest it is something sacred that we humans may not touch)? No we won’t redefine the “sacred bond between yada yada yada” as – despite its centuries-old democratic tradition, the Church won’t let us vote anything (that would actually be absurd if you think about it). So civil marriage and civil partnership are the same? No, there are legal differences, for example civil partnership does not recognise rights to some social supports. What? Now it’s too much – I am totally confused – so actually civil partnership doesn’t replace marriage?

This grew taller than me 😦 Isn’t there a simple way of understanding all this? Human Rights is a simple thing – and a good thing, right? Long list though. OK, let’s see… first article: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.THE END. Smiley face!