““I can walk 10 yards out my door and see middle-aged men injecting children with drugs,” he said. “Tourists coming to Dublin don’t want to witness drug addiction.
“Shopkeepers are closest to the people on the street. Over the course of the past number of years, you have been basically watching people die.
“In welcoming customers, you are also opening your door to lunatics and gougers. I’ve had needles put to my throat and been kicked in the head.”
Mr Fitzgerald said he has no concerns about the closure in terms of his family’s legacy and is “not sure yet” if he will miss the shop.
“I will miss aspects of it but I’m not sure about Dublin anymore,” he said. “I love the city centre but I hate seeing what is happening to it.””
A real advertisement for Dublin that bit…
I’ve been looking at that the last few months wondering how its still going.
That’s sad. Hopefully whatever it is next will keep the architecture/facade at least
A real shame. No doubt it’ll be turned into a “boutique” souless hotel.
That’s all she wrote
I actually bought two nice pens from them at Christmas. Not being able to order online probably worked against them. I had to phone up and give them my credit card details over the phone. ..
I thought they were a pub this whole time…
The competition from PenIsland was stiff and really hurt them.
I’ve been in the city every weekday for the past 10 years with the only gap being during Covid. I have to say, I got a real shock in recent months returning to work and walking the same streets, seeing how bad the quays, temple bar and even up grafton street has become with drug dealing, open air drug use and obviously the level of homelessness which is awful. These were always features of Dublin City centre but it really feels like it’s much more dangerous and drug use is just rampant. I thought it was in my head to a certain extent but this article reinforces it somewhat. “Town”really has gone downhill and feels a lot less safer than it was in the past.
It’s been easily 15 years since I was anywhere near Dublin. It was a shit hole back then, can’t think what it’s like now. God forbid I ever have to go back near it.
Ah that’s sad. Another unique and interesting business gone.
75 grand a year rent, you’d want to sell some amount of bics to cover that.
How did they not own the building if they’ve been there over a hundred years.
“I can walk 10 yards out my door and see middle-aged men injecting children with drugs,”
That doesn’t ring true at all. People injecting kids with drugs??
12 comments
““I can walk 10 yards out my door and see middle-aged men injecting children with drugs,” he said. “Tourists coming to Dublin don’t want to witness drug addiction.
“Shopkeepers are closest to the people on the street. Over the course of the past number of years, you have been basically watching people die.
“In welcoming customers, you are also opening your door to lunatics and gougers. I’ve had needles put to my throat and been kicked in the head.”
Mr Fitzgerald said he has no concerns about the closure in terms of his family’s legacy and is “not sure yet” if he will miss the shop.
“I will miss aspects of it but I’m not sure about Dublin anymore,” he said. “I love the city centre but I hate seeing what is happening to it.””
A real advertisement for Dublin that bit…
I’ve been looking at that the last few months wondering how its still going.
That’s sad. Hopefully whatever it is next will keep the architecture/facade at least
A real shame. No doubt it’ll be turned into a “boutique” souless hotel.
That’s all she wrote
I actually bought two nice pens from them at Christmas. Not being able to order online probably worked against them. I had to phone up and give them my credit card details over the phone. ..
I thought they were a pub this whole time…
The competition from PenIsland was stiff and really hurt them.
I’ve been in the city every weekday for the past 10 years with the only gap being during Covid. I have to say, I got a real shock in recent months returning to work and walking the same streets, seeing how bad the quays, temple bar and even up grafton street has become with drug dealing, open air drug use and obviously the level of homelessness which is awful. These were always features of Dublin City centre but it really feels like it’s much more dangerous and drug use is just rampant. I thought it was in my head to a certain extent but this article reinforces it somewhat. “Town”really has gone downhill and feels a lot less safer than it was in the past.
It’s been easily 15 years since I was anywhere near Dublin. It was a shit hole back then, can’t think what it’s like now. God forbid I ever have to go back near it.
Ah that’s sad. Another unique and interesting business gone.
75 grand a year rent, you’d want to sell some amount of bics to cover that.
How did they not own the building if they’ve been there over a hundred years.
“I can walk 10 yards out my door and see middle-aged men injecting children with drugs,”
That doesn’t ring true at all. People injecting kids with drugs??