Bar the notable exception of buskers and the odd street performer, Dublin s city centre has very little to offer by way of certifiable street culture. Until very recently, the Central Bank Plaza served as a rare oasis amid a desert of consumer superstores and overpricey superpubs.
Tucked between Dame Street and the adopted heart of booziness that is Temple Bar, every Saturday afternoon a horde of assorted goths, punks, rockers and skateboarders would gather around the steps of the Bank to compare skate boards and record collections and generally hang out. They were a colourful sight, decked in everything from Marilyn Manson tee-shirts to enormously baggy combats, freewheeling and idling away their Saturday afternoons as the rest of Dublin spent its newly found pocket money in swish British chainstores. Since last Summer, the Central Bank have been landscaping and re-vamping the area to include new benches and street furniture. Controversial architect Sam Stephenson, who originally designed the Bank, was also involved in this scheme. Just before Christmas, the steps were sealed off by large black railings, deeming the area unsuitable and unusable for skateboarding.
When talking to Hot Press last week, Central Bank Press officer Hugh O Donnell repeatedly stressed that this action was not in any way a reflection of the Bank s attitude towards it youthful regulars. The new layout of the Plaza and the restriction of access to the steps was conducted purely in the interests of public hygiene and safety, stated O Donnell. The bushes around the Bank had become the biggest open lavatory in Dublin, and you could get the stench of urine all around the steps. Furthermore, the cleaning bill was becoming enormous. Stains on the steps would include suntan lotion, coffee, chewing gum, graffiti you name it. The only way these stains could be cleaned was by graphite blasting. Not only would this be costly, it was wearing down the stone of the steps also.
The second major issue was public safety. We were finding syringes around the plaza on a regular basis. As we own the square, we would ultimately be held partly responsible for any public liabilities. Also, there was a very serious public security issue raised when there was a bomb scare here in 1997. A briefcase was left on the steps, and the view of our security cameras was impaired because of people congregating around the steps.
O Donnell added that the policing levels in the square were no different to any other public area in the city centre, and that there was no major reoccurrence of serious incident in the Plaza.
While many of the usual gaggle of goths and rockers still hang out in the square, the most obviously absent group from the plaza are the skaters. Clive Rowen of Skate City, one of Dublin s oldest and busiest skate shops located very close to the plaza, views the action as typical of a prejudiced and disinterested attitude from the authorities as a whole.
If the Central Bank can afford to spend a million on doing up the plaza [Rowen s figure, at the time of going to press the Central Bank had failed to provide a ballpark figure for the development], I wish someone would spend a half of that on building a good skate park in Dublin. There is no public facility for skaters, rollerbladers and BMXers in this country, which is ludicrous when you look at somewhere like Sco Paulo in Brazil that has no fewer than 35 skate parks. If there were no public football pitches in our parks there would be uproar, but because skating is perceived as this cult, breakaway black-sheep sport, people are not so concerned with it. Any time the Corporation was confronted with the issue, they just insisted that it was some new-fangled fad that would go out of fashion. Well skating has been going strong for over 40 years, so that s a pretty enduring fad!
When asked to comment on the issue of skate parks, a spokesperson for Dublin Corporation stated that skating was an activity best left organised by private clubs and individuals due to the safety and insurance implications involved. Rowen believes that this is an inadequate response to the provision of a facility that would greatly benefit the community.
I used to put on regular events, but eventually it becomes very hard when you don t have a permanent facility, explains Rowen. A skate park would be an asset to the community at large in three ways. Firstly it keeps kids off street corners, secondly it keeps them away from drink and drugs and it also helps to keep them away from getting involved in criminal activity. And finally, like any other sport, it keeps kids healthy and fit.
If a Third World Nation can accommodate this sport and go on to produce some of the best skaters on the world then there is no reason in the world why we shouldn t. It shows when Irish lads enter international competitions. They ve never been on a skate ramp in their life so its very difficult for them to compete. Why? Simply because we don t even have one public access skate ramp in this country.
One regular skater contended that no substantial progress has been made on the issue because of the prevalence of a strong liability culture in Ireland.
Ultimately very few kids would be willing to sign anything, so it leaves the authorities with a major public liability and insurance headache .
Rowen believes that this would not prove to be a significant problem, as other far more physical sports such as hurling and rugby are provided for without subsequent public liability problems.
It seems certain that skaters and skateboarding will never disappear. Whether even basic facilities will ever be made available, however, is an entirely different question.