As with any major city, Dublin has its poor. Though, economically, times are good, this does not guarantee that the social welfare systems run with efficiency or that people will be more generous--- and anyway, not all poverty can be bettered by money. That said, the point is that homeless folks and beggar children are noticable on most walks through the city.
There are several organizations actively assisting people in need. The Samaritans, the Simons, the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul are some of the better known charities. Today, out running errands around town, I saw St. Vincent de Paul out in force for a seasonal fund raiser. They hold these every so often, the charities do; on a certain day, volunteers stand on corners and thoroughfares, canvassing the city, and sell symbolic tokens for a pound's donation. Today St. Vincent de Paul was selling miniature summer bonnets, little straw ones like a child, playing, would have dress up a doll. The object itself isn't important, in my feeling. It's continuing your walk around, about your daily business, seeing most people you pass have one pinned to their lapel. There's a groundswell of care in the city, you see. On Daffodil Day, to benefit a nurses' charity, the whole town was covered with flowers. Mine I carried by hand from Baggot Street to Lucan, a clear sense buoying me that everyone I could see was a mate of mine, that Dublin was a tremendous place to be. It was beautiful and moving, in a do-good, completely non-sissy way.
As "we are all in the gutter" I am glad we have St. Vincent de Paul.
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