the dividing line

Been a worker in the construction industry has afforded me many things but the one thing I enjoyed most was that it allowed me to travel the lenght and breadth of the country but what I am going to write about today is what I see in Dublin city, you see in Dublin there is the river liffey this runs from the wicklow mountains and dissects the city rite in two. On one side you have people who would kill you for money,scumbags and petty crimanals on the otherside you have people who live in council houses and go to public schools.
One morning I was sent to work for a week in Ballsbridge (no joke actual name) on Dublins leafy southside supposedly one of the better address's to live in the county.I was excited to go work here as been a crane driver one of the perks of the job is you get to look out the window and watch the world work.
So monday morning rolls round and I arrive out to this manicured part of town and try to park my car (the eternal struggle) when I finally find a street I am greeted by sly looks and twitching curtains, on into work I go and since I start work at six i usually mis the morning chaos. Up in the crane its a slow day so I put the feet on the window and pour a cup of tea and watch the ensuing madness. People in suits power walking down the street on phones no one looking like there really enjoying what there talking about one man in particular trying to answer his phone with left hand and trying to drink his coffee while hollding his briefcase in his right hand,immaculatly turned out mums driving jeeps so big that they cant seem to tell the difference between a pedestrian crossing the road and a packet of crisps, constant grid lock and honking,racing each other tryin to climb that extra rung on the ladder....then as sudenly as all this madness happens it stops the mums retire to what ever bagel shop or cafe is quite to compare,brag and throw snide comments at anythin who's husband doesnt earn a hundred grand.
I was stuck in that place watching that routine for just a week and it was starting even to drive me mad people where not meant to work like that. When I left that place I felt deflated and worn out with the constant lynching feeling of 'we dont like your kind around here' following me everywhere I went thinking to myself it couldn't get any worse my phone rang with my boss on the other end telling me that on monday I was been sent to a block of flat in Dublins north inner city and I'm ashamed to say it know but my first thought wasn't "where will I park the car" but "will I even have a car at the end of it".
So another monday a new job in a different place I began by arriving early to find a place to park and got greeted not by a twitching curtain but a chronologically gifted man standing at his door and I prepared myself because you haven't been scolded until you have been scolded by a seasoned north sider but all I got was a warm "mornin yunfella" taken aback as I was of to work I went.
Waiting on the usual madness to happen as does happen in Dublins finely cured southside every morning I was greeted with a hive of life that had a different kind of energy,young children running up and down the street mothers who cant afford creches sitting on garden walls cup of tea in hand weighing up the finer things in life like "the state of yar one down the road" pensioners begining there daily steady quest to the shops not for anything in particular other than the social aspect of it all " I ran into toms lad down the shop". Needless to say I had a great time working there. Towards the end of my stint there I was having one of those 'everyone is against me' days when walking back to my car through the flats I could hear the laughter of veterans...legs that have walked too far and eyes that have seen to much and there aint no better sound. I couldnt help but smile myself beacause as I walked into the middle of the flats the place was alive people shouting from one side of the flats to the other kids milling about the place giddy on lemonade and sunshine and traversing this court yard was washing lines going from one block to the other like an operators switchboard and in the middle of all this lightly blowing washing was the source of the infectious laughter.
Sitting there on chairs of all sizes was characters large and small and as vaired as the furniture they where sitting on and as I ambled on I remeber when I was out in the preened suburds of ballsbridge and thought to myself " which people really have it better the people with the cars and the money and the jobs that will inevitably kill them or the people who granted have had a rough time of it but they know there neighbours names, have the neighbours kids running in and out of there home, people who can just pick up there favourite armchair and can sit out in the sun with there friends not competing with each other for anything knowing that they all have nothing quite content with there lot and to sit and laugh"
I always wondered how people managed to live in places like this and where happy to do soand the answer is simple they haven't just learned to weather the storm but too dance in the rain........