{"id":432906,"date":"2026-05-05T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/432906\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:18:09","slug":"brianna-parkins-the-thing-i-like-most-about-ireland-is-that-it-preserves-its-heritage-but-the-new-plan-for-stephens-green-shopping-centre-is-the-latest-symptom-of-beige-ification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/432906\/","title":{"rendered":"Brianna Parkins: The thing I like most about Ireland\u00a0is that it preserves its heritage, but the new plan for Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre is the latest symptom of beige-ification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"&quot;The redevelopment of St Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre is the latest symptom of the beige-ification of Ireland.&quot; The plans approved by Dublin City Council for St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MGstephensgreen.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">&#8220;The redevelopment of St Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre is the latest symptom of the beige-ification of Ireland.&#8221; The plans approved by Dublin City Council for St Stephen&#8217;s Green Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">As an Australian living in Ireland for six years, I was asked the same question again and again. \u201cAnd why would you leave there and come here?\u201d I was quizzed by taxi drivers, TDs, TV presenters, strangers at the bus stop, neighbours and one gynecologist trying to make the situation less awkward with friendly chat. People were mad to know. They\u2019d ask me why I gave up Sydney for Dublin in a polite but \u201cAre you OK?\u201d way. As if I hadn\u2019t made a very conscious choice to settle on the literal other side of the world instead of just ending up here after hopping on the wrong bus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Sure you can\u2019t tap on public transport with your bank card, but Ireland and Dublin have managed to retain a sense of soul in a way newer, flasher places have lost. It\u2019s in the way you thank the bus driver, talk to strangers and let cars in front of you merge. It\u2019s the way you can pass money over a crowd to the bar and get the correct change coming back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;The redevelopment of St Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre is the latest symptom of the beige-ification of Ireland.&#8221; The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,6361,43],"class_list":["post-432906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-magazine","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432906","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=432906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}