Eccentrics, beggars, mad aul wans...
A thing that struck me recently was the diversity of beggars we have in Dublin these days. They are more colourful with a more elaborate schtick than your traditional Irish beggar.

Your traditional Irish beggar generally just sits against a wall or on a bridge somewhere you might just trip over them but not necessarily so. They are a passive bunch and can generally be seen moving on once they have a few quid for drink or the much talked of ‘Hostel’.

Your newer, foreign beggar is a little more ambitious and granted they work harder so one ought not to begrudge it to them. It’s just a shame to see the indigenous population dying out but alas!

I think I may have mentioned the Santa Claus guy in a previous post. He has a huge bushy white beard and has been here about a year or so now. He is striking and comic but I lost faith in him when I saw him begging over Xmas. I mean, seriously, a big burly fella with a bushy white beard can’t get a job at Xmas?

He kneels down in a thoroughfare with his hands presented like he is receiving communion in a Catholic church. He’s probably aged 50 or so with a neatly shaved head and this enormous Santa Claus beard. He used to kneel to one side of the pathway about halfway up O’Connell Street but I think he twigged business is better if you make more of an obstruction of yourself so he moved in a bit and about 50 yards up nearer the traffic lights where people traffic converges. Smart move.

A newer addition is ‘The Old Crone’. She has taken up the spot vacated by Santa Claus guy only recently. She’s about 70 in appearance. She is bent at a 90 degree angle and leans on two walking sticks. She has a pained expression on her chamois leather face and appears to be rambling. A battered paper cup accompanies one of the sticks. This terrifying yoke has nearly put ‘Mad Mary’ out of business.

Mad Mary is an institution in Dublin. She doesn’t beg. She evangelises. I don’t know her origins but I don’t ever recall her not being there in the middle of O’Connell Street where protestors and marchers usually converge and obstruct the nice shoppers from going about their consuming.

She is probably approaching 80 now so you don’t see her as much as you used to. She is always well-dressed in Jackie Kennedy style suits and shoes. Her hair (peroxide blonde) is worn in a neat but quite large bun/bouffant combination and her make-up is thick and caked and pale. Around her neck are usually a combination of pearls and rosary beads and she generally has another set of rosary beads in her hand which she will occasionally endeavour to put around somebody friendly-looking’s neck. She rambles on about Jesus and dances, two and three-stepping in accelerating circles; singing her words in a tuneless falsetto and growing increasingly rapturous until someone removes her. Sometimes the Garda (police), sometimes care workers or maybe family members.

Wooden crutch Ghandi.

This guy has really taken it up a notch. He is bald, Ghandi-esque leathery skin and bone. He is missing one leg and that scraggly bit of superfluous trouser whilst seemingly tucked away, always seems to creep out just enough to ensure you are fully aware of its absent occupant. He sits on two wooden, war-zone triage crutches placed on the ground and slumps. For such a tiny specimen, he is remarkable. He’s relatively new as well and has chosen to sit at the corner of D’Olier street and the quays just beyond O’Connell Bridge against a nightclub wall which is all glass and chrome and glimpses inside at the wonderful time you could be having. The juxtaposition is notable and well-judged as begging locations go.

rafter
baz
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 31 Oct 2008, 15:50, 6 replies)

Santa guy

( bakelit72 something really clever, Fri 31 Oct 2008, 18:58, closed)

that's him - cheeky fucker isn't he?
It's gotta be a scam. He's clean. He doesnt smell funny and his clobber isn't wrecked.

With all the good will and sympathy in the world to the hard-up and hard-done-by, I dont understand why we're importing beggars.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Sat 1 Nov 2008, 9:55, closed)

you forgot
the deaf dude who accosts you on the south side of the city, holding a piece of cardboard explaining his deafness and dumbness

I also heard of one beggar who had a credit card machine.
(Duckeee Is nothing special, in fact, she's a bit of a bore, Sat 1 Nov 2008, 18:10, closed)

oooooooooooo
and abortion woman, ya know the one who walks up and down grafton street carrying the anti abortion placard?

And remeber the chinese man/woman who used to do the very odd singing/chanting dancing in a raspy voice outside Bewleys?

What a fertile city we live in
(Duckeee Is nothing special, in fact, she's a bit of a bore, Sat 1 Nov 2008, 18:14, closed)

And yer man
that hangs around O' Connell Street dressed in womans clothes, with loads of make up on his face. He carries a handbag and a can of cider and dances...
(BarryChuckle, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 13:28, closed)

I've seen him a few times
hanging around the corner of abbey street near the (last remaining) newspaper stall (in Ireland).
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 14:41, closed)