wish my name were irish

a few years ago, i had watched the movie veronica guerin and forgot all about it until today– when we walked around the worst neighborhood of dublin with a man who had known the real veronica guerin and given her the same tour of the public housing, the drug problems, the coffin church, etc.  here’s the trailer to the movie that pretty much sums it up (ignore the first few seconds,the real trailer is after):

if you don’t watch the youtube clip: veronica guerin was an investigative journalist who wrote extensively about the drug trade in a certain area of dublin. she was eventually killed by the drug dealers she was investigating.

the movie was produced by jerry bruckheimer and starred cate blanchett as veronica guerin, so it was very well done.  the scenes were shot in the actual neighborhood where the drug dealing was going on, which is where we walked around today.

the area’s seediness went back the 19th century, when it was called the monto (short for montgomery, the name of the street) and known as the busiest red light district in all of europe. public housing went in and the drugs came. first hash, then heroin in the 1980s. so many children died of heroin overdoses that the local church was known as the coffin church. our tour guide’s sister had lost FIVE children to drug overdoses.

what we all found surprisingly was that almost none of the original architechture remained from the 19th century.  the flats (the public housing) from the 1920s were still standing– that’s where the drug trade was/is going on.  but the buildings from the area’s time as a red light district have all been replaced with very modern office buildings, an obvious result of the now dying celtic tiger.

we also saw the original home of THE jack dawson (leonardo dicaprio in titanic).  and we saw one of the magalene sisters laundries (also a recent flim…the magdalene sisters..filmed at and about a different laundry)

just today, there was an article about how guerin’s killers are still operating out of prison.  so this is still a very relevant topic in ireland and i was lucky to see the physical places affected by the situation– especially accompanied by our insider historian-guide, who was born in the flats and still lived in the area.

i would have taken pictures, but i stuck out enough as it was on this tour. not trying to take pictures of heroine addicts here.