Róisín Ingle: This southside blow-in loves Kellie Harrington’s northeast inner city

I live a few minutes’ walk from Kellie Harrington’s homestead, on Portland Row, in Dublin 1. This is me boasting now. I should add that I’m a complete blow-in to the northeast inner city. It’s even worse than that. I’m a blow-in from the southside.

As I may have mentioned once or twice in more than 20 years of writing personal columns in these pages, I grew up in Sandymount, in Dublin 4. When I moved to the North Strand, in Dublin 3, more than 15 years ago, it was not an area I knew well. I just sensed, from walking around and getting to know the locality, that it was a place where my partner and I could be happy. I was right.

Soon after moving here I began telling everyone how wonderful it was. About the kind and welcoming neighbours who had lived here for generations, about the strong sense of community and, of course, about Da Mimmo, one of the best Italian restaurants in town.

Sometimes when I raved about my adopted home I got the sense that people thought I might have been protesting too much. They can't even imagine it is possible to live a perfectly lovely life in these places

Sometimes when I raved about my adopted home I got the sense that people – especially those deeply embedded in my former and leafier southside locale – thought I might have been protesting too much. The stories people read or hear in media reports about the area, tales of gangland violence or antisocial behaviour, have coloured perceptions of the northeast inner city and other parts of Dublin to such a degree that some people can’t even imagine it is possible to live a perfectly lovely life in these places.

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In an otherwise glowing 2014 review of Da Mimmo published on the Lovin’ Dublin website, the writer took the opportunity to enforce stereotypes about this part of the city, saying he was nervous about parking his car near the restaurant. He added: “I’d advise renting one of those PSNI trucks they use in the riots and being escorted by a water cannon and police on horseback to ensure safe passage through the Amiens Street area on the way here.”

At the time, when I challenged him on Twitter, the back-pedalling author said he hoped his positive review might attract people to the area and that “people might find the humour in it”. I looked for the review this week, but it’s no longer online.

For the week that’s in it I asked some of my fellow northeast-inner-city blow-ins to tell me what they love about living here.

Laura: “I’ve met many new neighbours from all walks of life and other country people like myself. I love the fact that I live a mile from the GPO. No need for a car. Safe. Friendly neighbours.” Carol mentioned “the brilliant community garden Mud Island and the craic in Cusack’s pub”. Maeve said it was “a hotbed for creativity, for actors, artists, dancers, musicians and writers”.

Fionnuala: “I’m living here 20 years and have seen a lot of changes, but the heart of the community stays the same, and Kellie Harrington is a great example of that. Her charm and sense of pride in where she’s from are more typical of life around here than the usual stuff that gets in the papers. It’s the people that make the place.”

This is a close-knit community, understandably sick of hearing the same one-sided story told about them. The pure joy on the streets of Dublin 1 this week, joy epitomised by an infant in a pink sleepsuit held aloft in the cheering crowd like a homage to Harrington’s hakuna-matata catchphrase, told a different story. A much truer one.

I hope that more funding is given to all the wonderful local initiatives helping young people with the struggles in their lives and that these young people get the kudos and resources they deserve

It’s the same story being told on the Talking Bollox podcast, in which Calvin O’Brien and Terence Power, who grew up around the Dorset Street flats, have championed the community and challenged negative perceptions of the part of Dublin they know and love so well.

My biggest wish for the area is that the spotlight shining on it now, for all the best reasons, stays shining. I hope that more funding is given to all the wonderful local initiatives helping young people with the struggles in their lives and that these young people get the kudos and resources they deserve.

This week it’s not really our northeast inner city, it’s Kellie Harrington’s northeast inner city – and rightly so. The rest of us are just living in it.

After I watched this astonishing young woman win Olympic gold on Sunday morning, and after I’d finally finished crying, myself and my partner and our daughters got in the car. We opened all the windows and did a joyful drive-by past the crowds around Kellie’s family home on Portland Row, beeping the horn and cheering as the guards waved us on. It was such a good buzz that we immediately turned left at the Five Lamps and did it all again.

I might be a blow-in. But I'm a very proud blow-in. When we first moved here, if people asked for directions, I would tell them, "Coming out from town, it's just before you get to Fairview." From now on, when people ask me I will say, "Do you know Portland Row? Well, it's just down the road from there."

Like I said, I'm boasting now. Hakuna matata.

roisin@irishtimes.com