Dublin: The Heart of the City

The Lilliput Press is proud to reissue this iconic view of Dublin’s northside docks area in the 1980’s, which comprises the text of Ronan Sheehan and over 50 black and white photographs by Brendan Walsh. Widely regarded as one of the finest studies of Dublin during this period, The Heart Of The City has been taught in UCD and Trinity and to students of Urban Folklore. This edition features a revised introduction by Sheriff Street-born writer and actor Peter Sheridan. Dublin film-director John Carney (Bachelor’s Walk, Once, Begin Again) writes a new foreword.

More poignant still in the aftermath of The Celtic Tiger, this is a remarkable portrait of a people and city so badly affected by the catastrophic collapse of employment on the docks in the 1960’s and by irresponsible urban planning.

‘The city centre is a barometer of how we measure ourselves: ‘inner city’ has become media shorthand for all things negative and I propose its abolition. The city centre is the heart that pumps life to the outer limbs. It is tradition. It is our past. It is now, the living city, and it is intimately concerned with what we are and how. It is collectively owned in a way that Raheny, or Churchtown, Howth or Dalkey could never be. It must be the concern of all when the city is subjected to, at best, atrocious planning, at worst, willful destruction.’ – From the original introduction by Peter Sheridan