Three questions for a Meath-man

I’m starting a periodic series called Three Questions For … I will meet a local and ask the same three questions about their community, foods, and dreams. It will be interesting and fun to compare across the world. Our first entry is from the greater Dublin area in Ireland and took place on 20 September, 2019.

I had a short chat with Ciaran at a Starbucks near his office in the International Financial Center in downtown Dublin. Our chat meandered from leprechauns to chicken wings and data analytics. Ciaran is a native Irishman who now works for a large multi-national financial organization, part of the new Celtic Tiger generation.

J: Tell me a little about yourself.

C: I live just outside Dublin, strictly speaking I live in County Meath but the border to Dublin is about five minutes from my town so a lot of people have a little argument between: are you a Meath-man or a Dublin-man, so I say I’m a Meath-man strictly speaking. You’ll find a lot of people in Ashbourne where I live support the Dublin teams so it’s always a joke – Meath or Dublin man?

J: What is something someone should know about this area, about where you live?

C: There is a lot of history where I’m from that I know nothing about! Like literally there’s been a lot of battles, there’s a lot of monuments, there’s a historical club in Ashbourne, there’s a lot of stuff that’s happened there that I completely don’t know about. For Dublin what could I say – there’s loads of little gems around the place in terms of lovely little areas, like we have an area in Dublin called Stoneybatter and it was on a recent travel list of one of cool little areas in Europe. There are all these little pockets of really niche little areas that are really, really nice. There’s a lot to do in Dublin that a lot of people wouldn’t necessarily see, like there’s the National Leprechaun Museum which I think is really, really funny because that is what everyone thinks of Ireland and you go into it and it’s a bit of a crack. Dublin has changed an awful lot in the last ten years and you know culture-wise, diversity-wise everything’s kinda changed - it’s the same but it’s gotten much more open. A lot of people forget homosexuality was only decriminalized in 1994 which is not really that long ago so I think there is a massive change in culture now. One thing to know about Dublin is, you see Dublin on a sunny day and just go by the piers, the port and see everyone out in the pub - it’s a great sight, a good side of Ireland!

J: What is something local that you like to eat?

C: You know the standard Irish response is spud and stew or something like that – but one of the things I love actually is we do have the best chicken wings in Dublin. There’s one near our office here in Harbormaster and in Temple bar area there’s Elephant & Castle. They’re like peri-peri chicken wings - you know they’re the hot and spicy ones, what do you call it in the US, buffalo? It’s the same as that over here – there’s a bit of a competition over the best chicken wings in Dublin – it’s not a very Irish meal but it’s worth it cause it’s lovely.

J: Tell me about a dream or goal you want to accomplish this year.

C: I’m starting a college course at literally the end of this month in data and analytics and I’ve worked in that area for years! I’ve been a business analyst for fifteen years and, while I know my stuff now, at the start I knew nothing, so I just decided to get a more formalized with it. The course I’m doing now is good because it’s a data research project and it will be like real work examples so I set myself an objective to do that, do it well, take my time, and kinda use work as an example. It’s the first course we’ve raised in Ireland called the Institute of Bankers so it’s like, you know, our central banking educational facility within the country and it’s the first course they launched in this area so kinda set myself a challenge to do well and be the first to graduate with this new course.

J: Thanks for talking with me Cirian. I have to run off now for some of those peri-peri wings but wish you the best of luck in your studies.

3?F Ciaran Dublin, Ireland