helpfulhigherenglish

If a student ever asks me to explain contrast in the future I won't throw out some twee text-book answer. I'll tell them about tonight in Dublin city centre. I'll talk him through a shopping list of visuals. I'll talk about the sheer energy and atmosphere on the streets. Of the money lavished by generic beautiful people in super pubs. Of (by my count) hundreds of homeless waiting to bed down in doorways with their possessions and fears in a small rucksack. I'll recount the joy of so many languages and foreign faces adding life to every street. Of the little gangs of kids cycling the same streets in search of a hand bag or phone to snatch. And there's the bin men drinking beer in the truck between pick ups. Too many barbers, too much diddley-aye music for the Hen-do's and Stag-nights betraying our real culture. What of the brilliant people rapping on O'Connell bridge carrying their instruments in a shopping trolley? Or a murder of couriers gathered out...