{"id":355604,"date":"2026-03-20T05:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/355604\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T05:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T05:31:08","slug":"a-melancholic-valentine-to-a-dublin-street-left-for-dead-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/355604\/","title":{"rendered":"A melancholic valentine to a Dublin street left for dead \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many documentaries has RT\u00c9<\/a> made about Moore Street \u2013 the beloved historic outdoor market in Dublin\u2019s<\/a> north inner city? It feels like there have been a few \u2013 and that they have generally taken the shape of a hagiography to dear auld Dublin and its flinty, loquacious locals.<\/p>\n

Welcome to Moore Street (RT\u00c9 One, 10.15pm) is different. It is a melancholic valentine to a part of Dublin that seems to be passing into history before our eyes. Shuttered stalls, plunging footfall, an increase in drug addiction and lawlessness \u2013 it\u2019s a wonder this wasn\u2019t called Farewell to Moore Street.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonderfully poignant documentary that resists laying on the misery with a two-for-a-euro trowel but instead lets those who have grown up on Moore Street, or come from abroad to work there, speak for themselves. The picture they paint is not flattering and raises questions about how Dublin is administered \u2013 or if it really is administered at all or is instead a victim of benign indifference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a risk every day in Moore Street,\u201d says Amanda, a reiki practitioner and oracle healer who has set up a stall on the street as part of a Dublin City Council initiative. She feels that the street is \u201camazing\u201d and has \u201ctaken her in\u201d and \u201cgiven her a chance\u201d, but she acknowledges there is a downside, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single person on that street is trying to find their way in life. Yes, you face trouble. There are drug addicts; there\u2019s all sorts that come at you. There\u2019s always a risk every day on Moore Street. There\u2019s stabbings, beatings, stealing\u2026 It\u2019s going to make you or break you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all my life living in the city and I wouldn\u2019t come out in the nightlife, and I wouldn\u2019t come out to Moore Street at night; it\u2019s gone that bad,\u201d says former fishmonger Margaret. \u201cThere\u2019s part of me that will always be in the street, and it\u2019s gone. I really feel sad about that. There\u2019s no future in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sadness hangs over the episode. We meet Lauren, whose mother, Siobhan, used to run a stall on the street before her death in April 2025. \u201cIf you had met my mam, you would have known\u2026 the big smile on her face,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cShe was just such a great person. Everyone loved to come down, just for the chat, because she was just so lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Dream on\u2019: Moore Street trader not expecting completion of long-mooted 1916 centre soonOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She and her brother, Ryan, want to keep the business going, but it\u2019s hard to do so as they continue to grieve. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have the memories,\u201d says Ryan. \u201cBut it dawns on you some days [that Siobhan has died], and it puts you in bad humour.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also meet Naleem from Sri Lanka, who, like more and more people who work in Dublin, commutes from an adjoining county. He finally throws in the towel, however, when the lack of footfall around his food stall puts paid to his dream of introducing Dubliners to the joys of Sri Lankan cooking. <\/p>\n

He still has his restaurant in Wicklow. The sobering message of this admirably unflinching documentary is that he is probably better off there, rather than trying to breathe life into Moore Street \u2013 a neighbourhood which, as portrayed here, has been left for dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How many documentaries has RT\u00c9 made about Moore Street \u2013 the beloved historic outdoor market in Dublin\u2019s north…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,13288,61,60,43,6085],"class_list":["post-355604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}