Tribe of the Ring Fort

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Dingle dangles (Barry)

Dingle, the town, is discovered. Too discovered. I’ll venture to say the place is in mid-spoil and has begun to steam toward the crest of the hill that leads to an inevitable downward slide through tourist-trappy into honky-tonk. To wit:
• Twenty-something Iowan--as in Midwest U.S.--girls there on a January weekend. Made me feel like the place would start voting for George W. Bush any minute.
• A DISCO at the foot of the road to the the Connor Pass. To my dismay, during that weekend night, my mates went sniffing after said corn-fed, red-blooded American girls to a disco, multi-colored flashing sunken dance floor and all, at the foot of the road to the the Connor Pass. The damn out-of-the-Lord-of-the-Rings Connor Pass! Could there be anything more antithetical to disco than the Connor pass?
• Already a bit difficult, in February, to find a room there on a weekend night.
• Impossible to buy real estate there, I’m told by a local landlord and other locals who we recently chatted with while there. Likely sign of a speculator mentality having taken over.
• Just heard through Sarah that a newlywed couple from Lahinch (Clare, I think) checked into the Listowel Arms after having jettisoned themselves from Dingle due to the too-touristy feel. I'm sure the native antennae are more sensitive to this than the typical tourist's--and these locals had options that most tourists wouldn't--but still could be an early warning sign.

However,
• To its credit, it’s keeping a very tight lid on allowable development. Perhap it’s learned from the many lessons out there provided by ruined tourist spots. We were speaking to a woman whose house on the edge of town had burned down. Even her family’s planning/rebuilding efforts were being tightly overseen by the local Town Council/Planning Commission/whatever it’s called.
• Also, to its credit, Dick Mac’s on Green street, half pub, half DIY (hardware) store, has the Vermont license plate ‘TINKERS’ prominently displayed over on its pub side. (photo coming soon)
• Those little metal cover-plates indicating access to utilities often appear in pairs, one "Water," the other "Uisce" (whiskey).

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