{"id":14346,"date":"2022-10-05T16:27:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=14346"},"modified":"2022-10-05T16:27:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:27:16","slug":"donal-fallons-burning-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/donal-fallons-burning-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Donal Fallon’s Burning Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deities or daimons held strong associations with the cities of Classical Rome and Greece, projecting how freemen, and sometimes women, wished to represent their civic virtues. Thus Athena, the patron god of Athens, combined an association with crafts such as weaving and valour on the battlefield.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gods of Antiquity yielded to saints or angels in Europe in the Christian era. The twelfth century, Archbishop Lorc\u00e1n \u00d3 Tuathail<\/a><\/span> is the patron saint of Dublin. He began the construction, in stone, of Christchurch Cathedral and was renowned for making peace between warring groups. Mediating between competing factions to produce lasting building stock might not be the worst attribute to find in a contemporary civic champion.<\/p>\n

Architects are the most obvious authors of cities. The skyline of Dublin is indebted \u2013 or otherwise depending on your view \u2013 to the varied talents of Gandon, Scott and Stephenson. Craftsmen and builders are generally forgotten, although some see the hidden patterns of freemasonry, while street names still bear the names of the first developers \u2013 notwithstanding post-independence re-branding.<\/p>\n

At a deeper level it has been writers, musicians and visual artists that have forged a distinctive consciousness among the inhabitants of the bricks and mortar of Dublin city. Historians, too, have helped impart an essence of place, by joining past and present, lest we forget\u2026<\/p>\n

Donal Fallon is a very modern historian who has used new technology<\/a> <\/span>to excellent effect throughout his career<\/a><\/span>, while retaining a commitment to the craft: engagement with sources primary and secondary, and reflections on the role of history and historians. Unusually among his peers, he approaches a mainstream audience without indifference.<\/p>\n

His latest work, Three Castles Burning: A History of Dublin in Twelve Streets<\/em><\/a><\/span> (New Island Books, 2022) cleverly uses twelve street as a window on an array of historical episodes, and personalities, which touch on contemporary concerns, notably a housing crisis<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Numerous themes are explored throughout the book, perhaps most evident is an enduring tension between preservation and development: \u2018All cities must develop and grow\u2019, he writes, \u2018The balance of development is key\u2019 (p.2). This extends to reconciling an alluring multiculturalism with the cultural distinctiveness of the native-born population.<\/p>\n

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Former Dublin Lord Mayor and long-time Labour councillor Dermot Lacey makes an impassioned call for a directly elected Mayor and a new Dublin Regional Assembly.https:\/\/t.co\/V1GxWpo4pv<\/a>@DermotLacey1<\/a> @Sinabhfuil @BowesChay<\/a> @paddycosgrave<\/a> @FNDuffy<\/a> @JohnGormley<\/a> @ActNowCollectiv<\/a><\/p>\n

— CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) July 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n