Those Were the Days - Dublin in the 80s (Dublin City Council)
In 2016, the Irish director and screenwriter spoke with NPR Fresh Air's Ann Marie Baldonado about his film Sing Street. Baldonado asked Carney to describe Dublin in the '80s, in the time that his story takes place.
I felt that the '80s were the '60s in Dublin in a sense, if you know what I mean. Ireland didn't really have the '60s, the sexual liberation and the - you know, that the rest of the world had - or certain parts of the world. And so it came sort of 20 years later.So the '80s felt as a young kid that there was something going on, you know, a feeling that the, sort of, the church were finally sort of losing their grip. People were beginning to experiment with sexual identity. They were beginning to experiment more outrageously with clothes. And I think I was in school right in the middle of that period. And it was a very interesting place to be 'cause it really felt like a very backward place and it felt like it was just beginning to sort of change and come into its own.
The Dublin City Council has made an online gallery of photographs capturing these moments of change and uncertainty in Dublin that Carney described.
Mass unemployment and continuous emigration. On-going tragedy in Northern Ireland. Planning scandals. Hurricane Charlie, dreadful summers, pea-souper smogs. Urban decay and phone queues. Pirate radio stations, disco balls and leg-warmers. Eurovision highs and lows. Zig and Zag. The 1980s have a lot to answer for.
To read the article written by the Dublin City Council click here.
To access the image gallery curated by the Dublin City Council click here.
Photo Credit: Dublin City Council
