The new Best Of Dublin includes an exclusive powwow with Donnybrook Renaissance man Ross O’Carroll Kelly who, over several pints of Heino in Kiely's, casts a steely-eye over the current state of the capital.
Asked whether he’s happy with the city’s new multiculturalism, Ross nods enthusiastically and says:
“Meeting people from different countries has definitely broadened my mind. I’ve cheated on my wife with women from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Westeros. All these new people have made Dublin feel bigger and more, I don’t know, anonymous? And because they’ve no connection to Sorcha, there’s very little chance of her finding out about my ‘foreign affairs’.”
His Ten Year Plan for Dublin suggests that Ross would make a brilliant City Manager.
“I’d like to see more time dedicated to slum clearance – and by that I mean I’d like to see Terenure totally wiped off the map,” he resumes. “I think it’s time we gave serious consideration to surrendering Ringsend to the sea.”
That’s just a little taster of an explosive interview in which Ross also holds forth on puritanical speed limits (“I’ve gone on sponsored bed pushes that moved faster than 30kph”); Love/Hate (“It reinforced everything I’ve ever said about the Northside”), and his favourite Dublin literature (“I would have to say Brian O’Driscoll’s autobiography”), and songs (“I’ve been known to sing a few bars of ‘Au lait, au lait, au lait, au lait.’)
You can buy Best of Dublin 2017 directly from hotpress.com